Shades of Grey
by Dark Phoenix Reborn
Summary: White and Black. Light and Darkness. Good and Evil. The lines between always looked so clear. Until Sora, a champion of Light, is pushed into Darkness. Now, everything's changed. A new battle looms, unlike any other. The question is, which side is right?
1. Dive Into The Heart

--- Shades of Grey ---

Prologue - Dive Into The Heart

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

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_All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end.  
__The heart is no different.  
__Darkness sprouts within it, it grows, consumes it.  
__Such is its nature.  
__In the end, every heart returns to the darkness from whence it came! _

_You see, darkness is the heart's true essence._

Sora shivered slightly, the remembered voice of Ansem - or rather, the Heartless calling himself Ansem - fading from his mind. 'It's cold. I guess... this is what dying feels like.' Hanging his head, he whispered, "I'm scared..."

"I'm scared too," came a tentative reply from somewhere to his right.

"Of _course_ we're scared," a third voice added from somewhere to the left, "This is _Hades_ we're talking about here. Lord of the Dead anybody? Even if we die, we're still gonna be trapped here."

Sora's eyes opened slowly. Though there came a light, feeble as it was, from somewhere below his field of vision, in all directions, all he could see was darkness. Though the light reached the veil of darkness, rather than pushing the darkness back, it was consumed entirely.

The first thought that flitted through Sora's head was 'Where am I now?' Hades' Underworld did not look like this. With that thought came a second; the chains binding his wrists to the wall were gone, as was the wall itself, leaving him standing under his own power. The third thought, however, centred around the two figures he could see on the edges of the darkness around him. 'Have I invented people to stave off loneliness or something?' "Who's out there?"

"Us of course," the figure on his right answered.

Sora turned to the speaker; where did he know that voice from? "Who are you I mean?"

"We're the parts of you that find a home in the dark places within you," the left voice remarked almost casually, a voice that sounded eerily like his own, only more arrogant.

Sora hung his head again. "So, you're here to finish me off then?"

The left voice snorted derisively, "Pfft, no."

"We exist in the dark places within you," the right voice continued, "But this darkness... This is something else. We're in just as much trouble as you are here."

Sora sighed. "I don't understand..."

"That's a first," the left voice quipped mockingly.

"You're not being particularly helpful, especially when we don't really understand it either," the right voice retorted.

The keyblade master sighed again. "Am I gonna have to ask who you guys are again?" As that question hung in the air, the two figures began walking towards the light.

The first person he noticed, the one on the left, did not do much to dissuade him from the believe he'd been inventing people to keep his mind busy; after all, he looked almost exactly like Sora himself, though his eyes were yellow instead of blue, and the entirety of his clothing were shades of black, even the crown medallion worn around his neck.

The second person however, the one on his right, caused him to do a double take; he recognised that face, so similar-yet-different to his own. "Roxas?" The meagre light glinted off the star medallion he wore, drawing Sora's attention to the outfit his Other wore, comprised of combinations of white and black in various amounts; the very same outfit he'd seen the teen wearing on the Altar of Naught.

If Roxas were here, there were only two explanations either he was hallucinating, or... Looking down, he saw something he probably should have noticed a long time ago; the ground he stood on was made of stained glass, and the light was coming from beneath the platform.

The glass, however, looked all pitted and cracked, so much so that he wondered how it hadn't fallen to pieces yet. The light beneath the glass was pulsing slightly, like a flame coming close to gutting out. Turning to examine the picture on the glass, he noticed instantly that it was of Kairi, dressed as she was the day he'd found her again after their year of separation, the light shining strongest in the centre of the picture, where her heart would be.

Sora knew where he was now. He'd been here before, what felt like so long ago, when he'd received his keyblade. This was the depths of his heart. And it was in ruin. "Why am I here again?"

"You're here because we brought you," the stranger replied.

"We're out of time," Roxas added, "This platform is your heart's last line of defence, the final barrier that keeps the darkness from consuming your heart entirely. IF we don't do something, all of us are in trouble."

Turning to the unknown mirror copy, Sora asked, "Who are you anyway?"

"Call me Aros," he replied with a bored shrug. "I'm your Heartless." When Sora gasped, he grinned, "What, you didn't think I was gone did you? You turned into me, but rather than Roxie here finding me and us rejoining into you, Kairi used the light in her heart to drive back the darkness. If you wanna get technical, before Roxas rejoined you, you were a Heartless made of light instead of darkness."

"And it's the unusual nature of our union that allows me to exist like this," Roxas supplied, "And that just may allow you to be saved."

"Why do you guys want to save me anyway?" Sora asked, without any real intent to be hurtful; he was just curious. "I mean, if my heart gets consumed by darkness, don't you guys go free again?"

"You think we _want_ to be free?" Roxas asked incredulously. "Being a Nobody is a horrid existence. We feel nothing; no joy, no hate, no jealousy. No love. I didn't even remember what having a heart felt like, and I still hated it. I don't want to go back to that now that I've had a chance to experience emotion through sharing your heart."

Sora nodded, "Alright, I get that, but why do you," he pointed to Aros, "Want to help?"

Aros just shrugged, "Being a Heartless isn't much better than being a Nobody. I mean, as a Heartless, you're little more than a wild animal with an insatiable hunger for Hearts. I only got this form when you were reformed. I only truly _live_ as part of you, rather than existing as some mindless beast. Hell, I even get to come out and play every now and then."

"What do you mean?" Sora quirked an eyebrow.

Aros smirked. "Your Anti-Form. Those drive forms of yours were a great boon to me, giving me the chance to take over every now and then, though things were still a little too bestial for my taste. Fortunately, Roxas here helps reign that in."

Sora nodded, satisfied with their answers. "So, what happens now?"

"We become you," Roxas replied.

"And you become us," Aros finished.

When Sora just looked more confused, Roxas explained, "We combine with you, granting you our memories and powers, and together, as one, we keep the darkness at bay. I erect a barrier of Nothing to keep the darkness away from your light-"

"-And I grant you control over the darkness, to help us out of the other predicament we're in," Aros continued. "This darkness is unnatural, and about the only thing that can stop Hades."

"You're going to sacrifice yourselves to save me?"

"Poetic isn't it?" Roxas smiled a touch sadly. "Both halves of you being noble enough to sacrifice themselves to save you."

"Don't look too deeply into this," Aros spat, "I just like existing, and I'd rather exist through you than as one of those disgusting mindless brutes."

"We just have a few requests," Roxas interjected, "First, I want you to look after Namine for me. She's part of Kairi, so that shouldn't be too hard, but..."

"Second, you kill as many of those Heartless and Nobodies as you can," Aros added, "It's a horrible existence, and they're better off. Finally, when you fight the ones that did this to us, we want you to use the new drive this'll give you; a drive combining the three of us."

"Done, gladly, and it would be my pleasure," Sora replied. As the two began fading back into darkness, Sora exclaimed, "Wait, how do I get back?!"

"How can you be so idiotic?!" Aros' disembodied voice shouted, "Look down!"

"You've always known the way," Roxas' voice added. "And if it helps, remember us to. Now go."

Looking down at the picture of Kairi's smiling face, Sora felt a smile come to his own. The light pulsed, before a door shimmered into existence directly over it. Striding over to it, Sora heaved the heavy doors open, finding a swirling mass of white and black behind, and without fear, he stepped in. He had a promise to keep.

"I promise," he spoke to his guardians in the darkness, "I will never forget, any of you."

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Author's Notes

As promised, a new story for a new year. I should be working on Disturbance, but here I am, writing a new story. Hopefully, this'll get the creative juices flowing enough to write the final seven chapters of Disturbance.

I had the first chapter of this story written in time to post on New Years Eve, as I'd hoped, but my beta said that there was something missing. I agreed, and it lead to me delaying the release of the story until this prologue could be written.

I'll be honest, I have no idea where this story is going. It started with an idea, and I'm going to see where it goes.


	2. Thinking of You

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 01 - Thinking of You

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

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_Thinking of you wherever you are.  
__We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope, that our hearts will blend.  
__Now I will step forward to realise this wish._

_And who knows?  
__Starting a new journey may not be so hard. Or maybe it's already begun.  
__There are many worlds, but they share the same sky._

_One sky, one destiny._

Setting the letter aside after having re-read it for what felt like the millionth time, Kairi sighed sadly, swinging her feet absently through the water beneath the dock. Sora had given it back to her after he and Riku had escaped the Realm of Darkness, smiling in his usual boyish way and telling her that her letter had shown him the way home. Vaguely, Kairi wondered whether she should send it off again in the hopes it would work a second time.

The boys had been back all of a week when a letter had arrived from Disney Castle. In it, King Mickey had written that the day after Sora's sixteenth birthday, which was three weeks after the letter's arrival, a gummi ship would arrive, and that a new threat had arisen that only Sora could stop. At the same time, Riku was to leave upon the ship to, his destination Disney Castle. Mickey had said that Riku's darkness was strong, and he was to come to the castle so that Mickey could train him to master it, not just control it as he had, lest it slip from his control and lead the Heartless to Destiny Islands again. Kairi, as one of the seven Princesses of Heart, was to remain here where she was safe.

She'd complained about that at first, of course, but then Sora had looked at her with those deep blue eyes of his, a pleading look on his face, and told her that he would feel better if he knew she was safe, and nowhere was safer than here. She, of course, could refuse him nothing, especially when he gave her that puppy dog look, so she'd relented. Now, however, she regretted giving in.

Three months they'd been gone now. Three months, and she'd not heard a word from Sora. Riku sent a letter every week or two, but he hadn't heard from Sora either, and every time he'd asked Mickey, usually because Kairi herself had begged him to in her return letter, all he heard was that Sora had an important mission, and was unreachable. And it was breaking her heart.

With another sigh, she cast her eyes skyward. Judging by the position of the sun, it was probably closing in on around four in the afternoon, maybe later. On a normal day, she would've only just arrived home from school by now, but she was finding it harder and harder to work up the effort to attend. Kairi was a good student, as one would expect of the mayor's daughter, and she had a near perfect attendance record, so if she was absent, there was always a really good reason. Except for today.

With her mother getting a promotion that required her to start working earlier and finish later, and her father always being with mayoral business, that left her alone for most of the day at home. Even at school, surrounded by friends, the only one she felt any real connection with was Selphie, and even then, it wasn't enough. Despite being surrounded by people, Kairi had never felt more alone. And now she realised why.

She missed Sora too much.

"He promised he'd be back." It wasn't the first time she'd told herself that. In fact, it had become somewhat of a mantra. Lying down on the dock, she stared up into the sky, as daytime began making the shift to night. The sweat sea breeze ruffled the pink skirt of her standard fare zippered dress, the violet shoes she usually wore sitting on the dock beside her as she swung her feet through the encroaching tide. Sora had promised he would be back in time for her sixteenth birthday, and she'd even given him her lucky charm to seal that promise.

Her birthday was tomorrow.

"Maybe waiting just isn't enough..." She muttered to herself sadly. Riku, at least, would be back for the day tomorrow. Maybe she could convince him to take some time off his training with Mickey to find Sora and bring him back to her. "And I still never got a chance to tell him how I felt." She hadn't worked up the nerve to confess. Now, she worried she'd never get the chance.

Just as she was about to head home, she heard something clink against one of the posts. Sitting up quickly, she glanced into the water, noticing a bottle bobbing up and down, drawn in by the tide. Lying down on her stomach, she reached down to grab it, her heartbeat jumping a notch as she noticed there was a note inside; messages in bottles, she had quickly learnt, were the way mail from other worlds arrived on Destiny Islands, and she'd gotten her weekly note from Riku two days ago, confirming that he would be there for her birthday.

Uncorking the bottle, Kairi pulled the note out, and began to read it aloud to herself. "Thinking of you wherever I am." Her heart skipped a beat. "To mend a broken heart, a lost soul returns, and grants heart's true wish. The journey over, as light turns to darkness, the traveller returns to the heart of Destiny's shores. One destiny, under the same sky."

A smile on her face, she held the letter against her heart, whispering, "Sora..." Just the thought of him returning warmed her in a way she'd almost forgotten. 'As light turns to darkness, the traveller returns to grant heart's true wish.' Mulling that over for a second, she continued, 'My true wish is to have Sora here for my birthday.' Her eyes widened, as she suddenly realised exactly what the message meant. He was here. Now!

Swinging her legs up onto the dock, she quickly slipped her shoes on, before climbing into her boat, tied just near by. She hadn't been to the island since Sora had left; it felt right that it be where she found him again.

o-o-o

The island was just how she remembered it, and as she tied her boat to the dock, she couldn't help but spend a moment to admire the poetic beauty, as the setting sun bathed their play island in golden light. "He said I'd find him in the heart of Destiny's shores." Kairi knew of only one place that could be called the 'heart' of this world: the Secret Cave. A fairly childish name, considering many people knew of it, but they'd called it that once, and the name kind of stuck.

She let out a frustrated groan when she found that the entrance seemed smaller than she ever remembered, thanks in no part to a slight cave-in of some sort. Not willing to be deterred, she dropped to her hands and knees, crawling through the tunnel until it was high enough to get back up on her feet, and even then, she had to stoop.

It was understandable, then, that she was disappointed when she found the room empty, save for the many drawings she and Sora had carved into the walls when they were younger.

Sighing sadly, she flopped down on a nearby rock, propping her elbows on her knees and resting her head in her hands. "I guess wishing just isn't enough..." she muttered miserably. Her eyes widened slightly when she spotted something she'd missed before, resting on the sandy ground; a star. Kairi hurried over, crouching down to pick it up, and finding something she'd not seen in three months: her lucky charm, made from thalassa shells while Sora and Riku had been building the raft, what felt like a lifetime ago.

Holding the charm over her heart with both hands, she stood up slowly, and nearly jumped a foot in the air when she felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around her waist from behind. "Hey Kai, miss me?" A smile on her face, she melted into his embrace as she heard the voice she'd been craving for the longest time.

"You came," she whispered simply.

She could feel him nod. "I made a promise."

A content sigh escaped her lips, before she realised something very wrong. As a Princess of Heart, Kairi could instinctually sense darkness in people, and Sora had never felt this dark before. "No!" She exclaimed, throwing her hand back and summoning her keyblade, Floral Fallal, in a flash of light, "You're not Sora! Sora's not that dark."

To her surprise, he made no move to fight back, merely sitting down where she had earlier, a hurt expression on his face. "Kairi, this _is_ me," he said softly, "I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise not to change." At her sceptical look, he added, "Do you remember, in the Organization's castle, when I saw you there with Xehanort's Heartless, you told me to close my eyes, and look with my heart, to find Riku beneath that darkness. I'm asking you to do the same now."

She wanted to believe him, so badly. Closing her eyes, she opened her heart, and gasped as, beneath the massive shroud of darkness, Sora's light still shined brightly. Banishing her keyblade with a thought, she through herself into his arms, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes; she was only partially surprised that he caught her without effort. "This is real," she murmured happily, burying her face in his chest; having found his light, to her, the darkness in him no longer existed. Pulling back slightly, she asked shakily, "What happened? You were gone so long."

Using one hand to wipe the tears from her eyes, he replied, "I just escaped today. Hades has been holding me prisoner in his Underworld ever since Mickey sent me there." Grunting sourly at the mouse king's name, he shifted her slightly, until she was sitting sideways in his lap, one arm around her back holding her to him. "It... changed me."

The look in his eyes, so full of fear and pain, scared Kairi more than his absence ever had. The beginning of tears forming in her eyes, she asked again, "Oh Sora, what happened to you?"

His eyes sliding closed, he sighed sadly. "I... I can't tell you Kai."

"Why not?" She pleaded, trying to look him in the eyes but finding him refusing to open them. "Please Sora, just talk to me."

Heaving another sigh, he opened his eyes, and she bit back a gasp as the pain in his eyes. "Kairi, your heart is full of light, and your soul innocent. I don't want to poison either with my darkness."

Forcing a smile, shaky though it was, Kairi remarked, "Mum always told me, a problem shared is a problem halved. Besides," she grinned as a thought occurred to her, "did you ever think my light might be able to fight your darkness? As you said, I have a lot of light."

He smiled back at her. "Alright Kai, you win." He ignored the smirk that screamed 'I always do'. "Just be warned, you're not gonna like most of what you hear." Her smirk slipped into a reassuring smile. Nodding once, Sora continued, "Alright then, it all started when Mickey sent me to Olympus; specifically, the Underworld. Said he'd had one of his visions, and that Hades was up to his old tricks again."

o-o-o

Sora crept through the caverns of the Underworld, Oathkeeper in hand, casting his eyes around to make sure there was no one following him. He had to admit, the place was creepy, and were it his first time here, no doubt the place would be noticeably fear inducing. 'Just like Hades planned,' the teen thought grimly. He hadn't seen anyone or anything yet, and while no signs of the Heartless would normally put him at least slightly at ease, now he just couldn't help but feel he was walking into a trap.

Edging slowly into Hades' chamber, he half expected to see the Lord of the Dead hard at work at the nefarious scheme he was supposedly up to, so it came as a bit of a surprise then to find the room empty. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the Keybrat." Well... mostly empty. Whirling around, he felt a slight touch of panic as he watched Hades casually saunter into the room. "I can't say I expected to ever see that particular face again," the blue skinned god shrugged as he took his seat, "But hey, it's a funny world. So, you lookin' to make a deal or something? Or is this not a social call?"

Thrown off slightly by Hades' casual attitude, it took Sora a good few seconds before he could respond. Clutching his keyblade tighter, Sora remarked, "I'm here on behalf of King Mickey to put a stop to you and your scheme."

Hades blinked, before bursting out laughing. Quickly sobering, but still grinning, Hades replied, "You got spunk kid, I'll grant you that, but I'm gonna let you in on a little secret." Disappearing in a puff of smoke, he reappeared behind the keyblade wielder. "You _can't_ stop me. Oh sure, you might've beaten me in a fight a few times, I'll give you that, but those were all when I was playing by the rules, or when you had a certain Wonderboy for help. Don't let the digs fool ya kid, I'm a god. Oh sure, Zeus kicked me off the mountain for being a tad too ambitious, but I'm a god all the same. And that makes me immortal, and way out of your league." That said, Hades just snapped his fingers.

Sora gasped as pain erupted in his chest, dropping to his hands and knees, the keyblade vanished in a shower of light. "What... What did you do to me?"

Hades just grinned, reaching down to grab Sora by the hair, yanking his head back. "The Curse of the Underworld kid. Wonderboy gets a by 'coz of dear old daddy, but without that talisman of his, all your power means nothing down here." Forcing Sora's head back far enough for the god to look him in the eyes, Hades' voice turned dark as he demanded, "Now, why don't you tell me just what 'scheme' you think I'm up to, and I might just let you walk out of here."

o-o-o

"He was _amused_," Sora spat, disgusted at his own weakness, "I couldn't do anything to him."

"So what did you do?" Kairi asked, torn between being worried and curious.

"I did what I could to survive," Sora shrugged, "I told him everything. I told him that Mickey'd had a vision of him experimenting on the tormented souls of the dead, harnessing their darkness to awaken, or strengthen, darkness in others. And do you know what he said to that?" She shook her head. "He grinned and said 'That's a good idea'. That 'vision' of Mickey's only came about because he'd sent me there to stop something that wasn't even happening, and would probably never have happened if I hadn't gone to stop it."

Shifting slightly in his lap to get more comfortable, the redhead prompted, "So, then what happened? I mean, he obviously didn't let you go, so..."

"No, he didn't," Sora remarked a touch wryly, "He said 'Because you've brought me this good idea, you've won the honour of being my test subject'. He threw me in some cell deep in the Underworld, chained me to the wall so that, even if I managed to summon my keyblade, I would've never been able to reach the locks, and got to work. The next few months are a bit of a blur." That was a lie, but this was one part of his story he felt he could never tell her. However, that didn't stop the memories from returning to him.

o-o-o

Consciousness returned painfully to the Keyblade Master; he felt like he'd had a car battery hooked up to his spine, which wasn't all that far from what had happened, metaphysically speaking. Were he to count every painful awakening as a day, Sora had to venture he'd been here maybe three weeks now. His clothes, and much of the skin beneath, looked like he'd lost a fight with Sabor, Cerberus, and Scar, all at once, and he hadn't actually slept a day yet; he always passed out from pain.

He wondered briefly what had awoken him, but the question was answered moments later when Hades strode in, a smirk upon his face; it was getting easier and easier to sense the fallen god coming, and nothing about that boded well to Sora. "Back again Hades?" Sora remarked defiantly, tired though he was. "Persistent bastard ain't ya? How long are we going to do this?"

"Way I see it kid, there's only three outcomes to this," Hades replied coolly, waving absently to one of his cronies to bring forth an urn of some kind, "Outcome one: you die, the pain ends. Outcome two: this little experiment works, the darkness consumes you and you become my new minion. Outcome three: someone comes to rescue you, fails, and shares your pain until option one or two takes one of you." He grinned coldly. "I'm immortal. I've got time on my side."

As he watched Hades and his demons preparing the latest stage of Hades' dark experiment, Sora bared his teeth like an animal, snarling, "When I get out of here Hades, immortal or not, I will find a way to kill you, make no mistake."

"I'm pissing myself in fear," Hades replies blandly, turning to Panic and adding, "Hit it." And Sora's world lit up with pain again.

o-o-o

Flinching slightly as the memory ended, Sora ignored Kairi's concerned look, continuing his story. "After about, I'd say, two months, Hades got a breakthrough. Something he did got, for lack of a better description, a resonance within me. So he did it again. And he kept it going, eager to see what happened. All I remember is pain, then light, then Hades holding a keyblade." He heard Kairi gasp. "Near as I could tell, what he had was something like the keyblade Riku first used; after I got mine back of course. But whereas Riku's was the Keyblade of Captured Hearts, Hades' was the Keyblade of Tormented Souls. And with all the souls Hades has at his disposal, there's no telling how powerful it is."

"What do you mean Sora?" Kairi cut in. "I thought all keyblades were much the same, and it was the keychain that made the difference."

"Keyblades are weapons of the heart," Sora explained, "As such, they are generally as strong as the heart of their wielder; that's why they seek the people with the strongest hearts, light or dark. Keychains can augment this base strength. However, keyblades like Hades', or Xehanort's, did not choose their master; they were made for them. As such, they don't use their wielder's power, but the powers that forged them. In Xehanort's case, it was the hearts of six of the Princesses of Heart, six of the most powerful hearts in all the worlds, and if he had your heart, he would've been almost unbeatable. For Hades, his is forged from the souls of I don't know how many souls from Hell itself, so I have no idea just what strength it has behind it."

"Didn't you get a chance to study it?" Kairi knew, from what she'd heard from Sora before he'd left last time, that he'd developed the skill to, at a glance, get at least a rough guess how strong something was.

Sora shook his head. "Once Hades had that, he declared the experiment a success, and had me thrown back into the cell, where I stayed until I escaped. I don't know what he's doing, but I do know he's not in the Underworld anymore. He'd done everything he needed to do..." Kairi gave him another curious look. "With all the experiments he put me through, the darkness in me had been ebbing and flowing, building then dying down again. With this last one, it started rising, and kept rising. It almost consumed my heart entirely. I knew if I didn't do something, I was going to die there, so I did the only thing I could." He sighed. "I opened my heart to the darkness."

Eyes closed, he heard her gasp, and mentally braced himself to be cast aside, but the girl showed no signs of trying to get off him. If anything, she wrapped her arms around him tighter, burying her head in his shoulder, and the knowledge that she would stand by him, even now, gave him such strength, such contentment, that wading through the Underworld to get here seemed more than worth it. "So what happened then?" She asked quietly. "How are you still... you?"

He smiled sadly. "I had help." She sent him another questioning glance. "Roxas, and Aros." The first name she knew, but the second even he hadn't known until recently. "Roxas, you know, was my Nobody. Aros, was my Heartless. Using their control over darkness, the two of them, for lack of a better term, merged with me, erecting a barrier in my heart to separate light from the darkness - Roxas' work - and grant me control over the darkness - Aros." Resting his head against hers, he added, "Ever since I first became a Heartless, I was never complete. When the light in your heart brought me back, Aros was created, and because Roxas joined with me, rather than merely reclaiming his lost heart, his consciousness stayed behind."

"Does... Does that mean Roxas is gone now?" Kairi asked, though for the briefest of seconds, he saw a flash of blonde hair; Namine.

Brushing a lock of hair behind her ear, he replied slowly, "Honestly, I don't know." Letting that sink in, he began stroking her hair, "His consciousness is gone, buried deep within my heart, fighting back the darkness, and as long as this darkness threatens my heart, I believe that's where he'll remain. I just hope that, when I manage to free myself from this darkness, he'll be able to come back, but until then, his memories, thoughts, feelings, all that makes him Roxas, is mine now. Everything that was Roxas, lives on through me."

He could feel the part of her that was Namine saddened by that. Curious, Kairi asked, "But why would Aros help you? I mean, wouldn't you becoming a Heartless free him?"

"I asked him that question myself," Sora replied, still absently stroking her hair. "The explanation he gave me is: Heartless are mindless creatures. Just as Nobody's cannot feel, but can fake it from how they remember feeling, Heartless cannot think, though they do have instincts that make it seem like they can. They're little more than animals, really. Aros only truly existed as part of me; his existence lead to my Anti-Form. He told me that he would rather his will, his legacy, live on through me, than to return to being a mindless beast."

"Does that mean you're going to become evil and use the Heartless to take over the worlds?" Kairi asked semi-jokingly, "Because if you are we need to have a serious talk."

He could tell she was hiding her fears behind a joke, just in case it were true; ever since he'd acquired these powers, he could actually _smell_ lies and trickery. Shaking his head, he commented, "I'm still me, and I always will be. Darkness can never truly claim my light. I lay claim to darkness, not it to me." At her confused look, he asked, "Do you want to know why?" She nodded slightly. "Darkness can never steal my light from me, because my light, is you. It was my promise to you that brought me back. It was my memories of you, that kept me from sinking into darkness, and that allowed Roxas and Aros to do what they did." He smiled. "And it is my love for you, that helped me find the way home." Saying no more, he leaned over and kissed her.

Eyes widening in shock, Kairi kissed back by instinct alone, before wrapping her arms around his head and allowing the moment to consume her, her eyes sliding closed again. After almost two minutes, the two separated again, though only far enough to breath, her forehead leaning against his. "Sora," she whispered against his lips, "I love you too." Breath caught, the two kissed again.

Reaching behind him with one arm, he broke the kiss after about half a minute, remarking, "I got you something Kai." Smiling, he glanced up quickly, before producing a wrapped box. "Judging by the position of the moon, it's past midnight now. Happy Birthday Kai."

Smiling gleefully, Kairi tore the wrapping paper away, quickly opening the box beneath, and gasped at what lay within. Gently pulling it out of the box, she held the star-shaped object in her hands almost reverently. "A paopu fruit..." Kissing him quickly, she added, "You remembered."

He nodded. "I promised I'd share one with you, and I always keep my promises." She held the fruit out for him to take the first bite, before taking one herself, and then, the sweet juice still on their lips, they shared another kiss, though this one, according to the legend of the Paopu, bound their hearts together, forever.

Smiling brightly, Kairi could swear she felt the connection, as all her nervousness, her worries, her fear, just melted away, leaving her with the confidence to ask for something she'd craved ever since she'd realised her feelings for him, so long ago. "I know it's my birthday, but I've got a present for you too Sora." She was proud her voice only wavered slightly. At his questioning look, she picked up the bow from the discarded wrapping, and carefully threaded through the zipper sitting between her breasts. "W-would you l-like to unwrap it?" She wasn't scared; she could feel she'd never be scared in his presence again. It was more a nervous excitement, of having her dreams fulfilled.

Smiling lovingly, he kissed her, before whispering into her ear, "I can think of nothing I'd like to do more." As he bore her gently to the ground, Kairi knew that things would never be the same again after this, but she found she didn't care. Sora had changed; for good or ill, he was someone else. However, he would always be Sora, _her_ Sora; their past, and memories, would always be there, and their love would bind them forever. For Sora, she would be his strength always; in truth, she too had changed. She was his light, his love, and his salvation.

For the first time in her life, she felt truly complete. And she would fight Hell itself to keep this feeling.

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Author's Notes

Here's the chapter that was meant to be released on New Years Eve.

As I said in the prologue, this story started with a single idea. I'd read many a story where the author had Sora gaining the powers of darkness, and instantly becoming evil. I kept thinking to myself, why? Why did he undergo a rapid personality shift just because he succumb to darkness? I mean, when Riku was working for Maleficent, he was just a more arrogant, less caring Riku. He'd always been competitive and jealous; his darkness just made the negatives of his personality more prominant.

To that effect, I wanted to do my version of a dark Sora. I've already got a skeletal plot arc for the story in mind, so we'll see how things work out.


	3. The Road to Dawn

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 02 - The Road To Dawn

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

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**What're you making me choose now?  
**_Which road will you take? The road to light, or the road to darkness?  
_**Neither. I'll take the middle road.  
**_The twilit road to night?  
_**No-**

"The road to dawn," Riku murmured, squinting his eyes against the early morning sun, using one hand to shield his eyes. Sighing slightly as the Corridor of Darkness closed behind him, he couldn't help but wonder if he was any closer now than he had been over a year ago when he had first escaped Castle Oblivion. 'Maybe I should've taken Namine up on her offer,' he thought, and not for the first time; however, like every time that thought occurred to him, he wrote it off as quitting, and Riku was no quitter, not now, not ever.

Reaching one hand into the pocket of his coat, one of the old Organization XIII coats, he confirmed Kairi's present was still there, before pushing back his hood, unzipping the coat, and striding off towards Kairi's home. It may have been far too hot for a long black coat, but Riku always wore it when he travelled, especially when said travel required him to use the Corridors of Darkness; the Heartless and Nobodies within the darkness seemed to instinctively shy away from him while he wore the coat.

He was looking forward to seeing Kairi again. They'd been keeping correspondence between them, but it was still nice to come home to find a friendly face every now and then. With everything that had happened to him in the past two years, he didn't feel like he really belonged on Destiny Islands any more, so Mickey's offer of training was a Godsend. He was just glad his parents had understood and let him go, provided he promised to keep in touch.

Wincing a little as he noticed her house on the horizon, he realised that, while it would be nice to see Kairi again, he was _not_ looking forward to facing the torrent of questions that she'd no doubt have for him, all centred around a certain spiky-haired lazy bum. For three months, Kairi had been asking about him, but each time he had been forced to say he had nothing knew. For the first month, he _had_ actually asked Mickey as she'd requested, before his teacher had told him simply that he didn't know where Sora was any more, and not to expect that to change until the teen resurfaced; the keyblade master had apparently dropped off the grid.

Unfortunately, just one month ago, Sora had resurfaced, if the rumours he'd heard were to be believed. They didn't have anything concrete, but during one of his sojourns, Riku had heard about a spiky-haired stranger with a key-shaped weapon causing havoc in a few of the outer worlds, and Riku only knew of five beings able to wield a keyblade, and only four of them still existed currently: Mickey, Sora, Kairi, Roxas, and Riku himself. And as Roxas was now a part of Sora once more, and Kairi was here on Destiny Islands - not to mention not male - that left only one person who fit the rumoured description.

With a start, Riku realised that, while deep in thought, he had completed the walk to the mayor's mansion; Kairi's adopted father. Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door, jumping back slightly as it was yanked open from the inside seconds later, Kairi's mother sticking her head out and shouting, "Kairi?" Sighing, she returned inside slowly. "Sorry Riku, I thought you might be Kairi. She didn't come home last night, and there was a message on the machine from Destiny High; she didn't go to school yesterday either."

Smiling reassuringly, Riku replied, "Don't worry Missus Shichou, I'm sure she's just nervous about today. I mean, you only turn sixteen once right?" He didn't want to tell her that Kairi cutting class was probably more to do with her missing Sora. "I think I know where she might be."

There was only one place he could think of Kairi going, given the situation: their play island.

o-o-o

Waking up without the harsh blare of her alarm clock wasn't something Kairi was particularly used to, so it was something of a surreal feeling to be woken up by the rays of the sun playing across her face, and the birds chirping and playing. 'Wait, there's no birds near our house,' the redhead thought blearily to herself. Still not quite awake, she slowly processed the information her senses were sending her. 'I don't remember my bed being this lumpy, or warm. And why is my back uncovered; where are my sheets? Did they get wrapped around me somehow?'

Forcing her eyes open a fraction, so as to not blind herself, she noticed the still smiling, still slumbering face of Sora just inches below her, and with a massive blush, began remembering exactly where she was and why. As her mind began booting up again, she lay her head back down on Sora's chest, thinking idly to herself, 'I could get used to waking up like this...'

Wincing slightly as she felt one of the after effects of the previous night, Kairi couldn't help the smile that lit up her face as she replayed everything in her head. She'd heard all sorts of horror stories from some of the other girls at school about how bad their first time had been, whether it be the pain, the blood, or just the guy's lack of stamina. Last night, however... She could think of only one word to describe it: perfect.

The evening might not have been quite as magical to Kairi had she been aware of a certain fact. The kids on Destiny Islands had been raised to believe that two people who shared a paopu fruit were destined to love each other forever, which is why they were always given out to the bride and groom at weddings. What she and the other kids of Destiny Islands didn't know, was that the Legend of the Paopu was a little spin doctoring by the adults, to hide exactly why they were given to newlyweds.

The flesh and juice of the paopu actually induced a series of complex chemical reactions when consumed. In women, it was something of a muscle relaxant, as well as a mild, natural pain medication. In addition, by dulling the pain receptors, it enhanced the touch receptors in a woman's body, making their first time hurt a lot less, and feel a lot better. In men, it suppressed their sense of touch slightly, specifically those receptors in the genital region, dulling the feeling just enough to increase their stamina significantly without reducing the pleasure too much. In both, it was a natural aphrodisiac. Combined, these effects all but guaranteed a newlywed couple a magical first night together.

Understandable why parents didn't want their kids to know the truth of things. Besides, the sense of wonder and magic was almost as precious. [1]

Settling down against his chest again, Kairi listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat, her eyes slipping closed again. A content sound escaped her lips as she felt one of the hands around her waist reach up and start stroking her hair slowly, before she heard Sora whisper, "So it wasn't just a cruel dream. This is real."

"This is real," the girl confirmed softly, snuggling into his bare chest. "So I guess I wasn't the only one afraid of waking up to find last night was just a dream, huh?"

Sora smiled gently. "I have my angel in my arms. If I'm dreaming, I never want to wake up." Kairi blushed. "You know Kai, just being here with you, holding you, makes everything that's happened these past two years worthwhile."

"Sweet-talker," she jibbed good-naturedly. "Are you gonna go on to tell me how I'm the prettiest girl in all the worlds you've been to or something?"

He leaned up to kiss her, before replying, "Well, I thought that went without saying, but if you'd like me to, I can list the ways you're more beautiful than anyone else I've ever encountered."

Her blush escalated from pink to scarlet. "I don't need you to do that," she replied shyly, "I just need you to do one thing for me."

"Anything Kai," Sora remarked, kissing her neck.

Batting her eyelashes at him, she whispered, "Promise you won't leave me behind again."

"Actually," Sora grinned slightly, "I was planning on asking if, when I leave, you wanted to come with me." At her look, given no doubt to his certainty of leaving again, he added, "I can't stay here Kai. With what I am, the longer I'm here, the more danger Destiny Island is in, and the others can't defend themselves like you or I can. So I need to keep going, find some place safe. And I want you with me, if you-"

"Yes. Yes!" The girl cried out, hugging him fiercely. "You're mine now," she commented playfully and possessively, "And I'm never letting you go again."

He simply smiled. "I can live with that."

The two remained in each other's arms, just basking in their presence, for a good few minutes, before Kairi clambered to her feet, a determined look on her face, and started getting dressed again. "Come on you lazy bum, get up." Despite the insult, the smile on her face removed almost all of the sting. 'Lazy bum' was just her pet name for him.

"What's the rush Kai?" He yawned back, stretching his arms.

"If I'm gonna go with you, then I'm gonna need to go home and grab some things," she replied, "Which'll mean having to face my mother, listen to her tirade about not coming home last night, before trying to convince her to let me go with you. Trust me, we're gonna need all the time we can get, so up! Up, up, up!"

A smile on his face, he climbed to his feet, sliding his boxers on first. "Alright love, if you sa-" He cut off abruptly, staring through the left side of the cave wall, as though he could see something on the other side; something he was nervous about.

"What is it Sora?" Kairi asked worriedly.

Sora just scowled slightly. "Something... dark." His eyes slid closed, as the shadows in the Secret Cave began to wrap around him, actually reforming his clothes around him. However, all the white and/or yellow highlights on his clothing was instead a haunting royal blue, while the rest of his clothes were all black, save for smoke-grey patterns on the cuffs of his sleeves and pants legs. Holding his hands out to either side, a pair of keyblades flashed into existence.

In his right hand he held a weapon Kairi had seen before. The blade was almost entirely black, save for a purple crystal near the hilt, with a pair of bat-like wings for a guard, and a wrought-iron look 'key'; the keychain was a black version of the crown Sora wore. The Oblivion keyblade. The one in his left hand, however, she didn't recognize. The blade actually looked like a curved sword blade on the back, hooking down and crossing over at the top to reach the 'key', which was a series of four spikes, alternating black and grey. The guard was topped by rows of spikes on either side of the blade, and marked by a symbol identical to its keychain where the purple crystal of the Oblivion rested. The keychain, Kairi noticed, was identical to Roxas' medallion.

Before she could ask him about it though, he'd made a circular motion with the blade, which faded away to reveal a view of the beach; he'd sliced open a portal to outside. With a simple, "Stay here," he leapt through, the portal closing behind him.

She blinked for a moment, before commenting to herself, "Like hell I will." Hurriedly getting dressed, she grabbed Sora's clothes and raced over to the entrance; if there was trouble, she was going to help.

o-o-o

The Corridor of Darkness closing behind him, Riku cast his eyes around the fort that had been built over many years of the Play Island. 'Kairi's here somewhere. I can smell the pure light in her heart.' Well, 'smell' wasn't exactly the correct term for how he could tell, but when measured against the standard five senses, it's what was closest. 'And... something else. Something dark.' Summoning his keyblade, he analysed the 'scent' further. 'I've never come across something this dark before, not since Ansem- er, Xehanort.

Suddenly, a figure seemed to step out of a hole in the air. The glare from the morning sun made it a little hard to get a good look at whoever it was, or how they'd arrived, but there were two unmistakable fact Riku noticed: first, the newcomer was holding a keyblade; second, he reeked of darkness. 'This must be the person who's been causing havoc on the outer worlds,' Riku deduced, 'And now he's come here to Destiny Islands. Bad luck for him.' Needing no further provocation, Riku threw himself into battle, determined to defend his home.

The irony of the situation was that Sora, too, couldn't properly make out the figure charging into confrontation with him, due to the glare from the morning sun reflecting off the rising tide. Having not acquired the darkness-senses Riku had until recently, he didn't know what Riku's darkness 'smelt' like. His mind, instead, followed a simple path to it's conclusion: dark figure + keyblade + attacking me on sight = Hades.

Charging towards each other, the two clashed keyblades in a shower of sparks, continuing past each other, before spinning around and trading blows. Riku would slash, and Sora would parry with one blade, only to attack with the other, forcing Riku back, which, in turn, led to him pressing forward again, and not once through this entire dance did either combatant get a good look at the other. However, just as Riku's skill at fighting blind (having travelled around blindfolded for months) began to wear away Sora's advantage of a second keyblade, they halted instantly at an irate female screech of, "Stop that right this second you two!"

The pair spun towards the voice, declaring together, "Kairi!" Suddenly realising who the other was from their voice, the two boys turned back to each other again, Sora instantly banishing his Darkness Form before Riku could get a look at him. "Sora!/Riku!"

Banishing his keyblades, Sora grinned at his old friend-slash-rival, exclaiming, "Hey Reek, how's the training? You decide to give it all up and come home huh?"

"Psht, as if," Riku snorted, likewise banishing his weapon, "I got the day off for Kairi's birthday. But you, man, where've you been? You just vanished into thin air."

"Well, I wouldn't say the air was thin, but yeah," the keyblade master shrugged, "Things went south and've only just recovered."

"That's great news man, that's-" Riku abruptly cut off, seeing Sora's state of undress. "Dude, why are you only wearing boxers?"

Kairi's blush could have lit up half the island were it darker, as she quickly ducked into the nearby cabin with an armful of Sora's clothes. Thinking quickly, and silently thanking Roxas he had an answer to give, Sora replied, "Well, it's been a bit of a rough time, ya know, so Kai and I were gonna go for a swim, for old time's sake. I didn't have any bathers, and the ones I've got at home don't fit properly anymore, so I thought I'd just use these. Kai's still getting changed." Hopefully, she both heard his excuse, and still kept a spare swimsuit in there.

Riku, at least, seemed mollified by that answer; for now at least. "Speaking of Kairi, where's she been?" Riku questioned. "I went by her house and her mother said she didn't come home last night, _or_ go to school yesterday, so what gives?"

Sora blinked, scratching his head slightly. "Uh, well, the latter is news to me, but the former's kinda my fault. You see, I got back late yesterday, and Kairi and I met up again on the island. We got to talking - you know, catching up, reminiscing, stuff like that - and we totally lost track of the time. Before we knew it, it was way too dark to row back, and Kairi'd left her cell at home, so we couldn't even contact anyone to let 'em know."

Riku shot him a raised eyebrow. "And yet you were going to go swimming, rather than return her home and let her mother know she was okay?"

Smiling weakly, Sora offered by way of excuse, "Uh, it seemed like a good idea at the time?"

Riku's eyes narrowed. "There's something else you haven't told me; I **know** you're keeping something else from me."

"Sora asked me out," Kairi's voice interjected suddenly. The two boys' heads snapped in her direction, and Sora suddenly forgot how to talk. And breathe. Obviously, she did still keep a spare swimsuit here; however, it was one she'd almost grown out of. The royal blue one piece hugged her curves nicely, and only just hid enough to not be considered indecent to wear in public.

Gaping slightly from the one-two punch of Kairi's words and appearance, Riku muttered dumbly, "Asked you out? As in, like a date?"

Regaining some control over his motor functions again, Sora replied, "Yeah, like a date." Well, that was true, what they'd done _was_ kinda like a date; they'd just skipped the courtship and gone straight to the consummation.

Blushing slightly, Riku tore his eyes away from Kairi, stuttering slightly, "Guh... um... wow, okay, didn't expect that... uh... I mean, crap, I sound so awkward." Closing his eyes and taking a moment to compose himself, he continued, "I'm happy the two of you are gonna start dating and all; lord knows you've danced around each other enough. I've just kinda been a bit paranoid recently, s'all." Starting to walk away, still in something of a daze, he added, "I'm just gonna go let your mum know you're okay and might be a little longer, 'kay?" Without waiting for a reply, he opened a Corridor of Darkness and stepped in.

There was a moment of awkward silence for the two lovers before Sora remarked, "Wow, he took that badly. Could you imagine how he'd react if we told him what really happened last night?"

A blush starting to consume her face, Kairi replied somewhat shyly, "He'd probably have been mortified to silence."

Grinning slightly unsteadily, Sora jibbed, "Oh, better keep it for later than."

Marching over to him and slugging him in the arm, Kairi barked, "If you dare tell him I'll say it was all your idea." The massive blush on her face made her a lot less threatening, at least in Sora's eyes.

Pulling the girl to rest against his chest, Sora remarked, "If you told him I got you 'that' as a birthday present he'd try to beat me senseless for sure. He's just looking for a reason to label the darkness in me as bad for everyone involved."

"I know," she replied, snuggling against him, "But you're cute when you're flustered."

As if her very words had summoned the feeling, he stumbled over his next few words, before finally managing to get out, "Well, you're cute when you blush. And I'm gonna be keeping a certain ribbon in my pocket from here 'til the end of time just so I can remember a certain sweet-sixteen I dare never to forget." Her blush reaching critical limits, she buried her face in his chest, and Sora silently thanked Aros for the comeback; his Heartless was quite a perv, all things considered. "Now come on, let's get cleaned up."

o-o-o

Riku scowled slightly as he paced through the immaculate halls, the sound of his sneakers echoing slightly as he walked. He hated having to do this, but it had to be done. That didn't mean it felt any less like stabbing his best friend in the back. No matter how he justified it, telling himself that Sora had given in to the Darkness, and according to rumours had been causing trouble, from what little interaction he'd had with him, he was still _Sora_.

With a sigh, he rapped three times of the door before him, before letting himself into the library; the King tended to spend a lot of time here on his days off. Sure enough, Mickey was seated in one of the massive red leather lounges, Minnie at his side, as the two thumbed through their own respective books. Clearing his throat softly, he waited for the two of them to notice him, a look of shock covering both their faces at seeing him there. "I thought you were taking the day off for Kairi's party?" Mickey questioned, in his almost comical high-pitched voice.

A worried look on her face, Queen Minnie added, "Nothing went wrong did it?"

Shifting uneasily, Riku supplied, "Not really. I just have..." Good? Bad? "...news, that I thought I'd best bring to your attention right away."

The pause didn't go unnoticed by their royal. "What happened Riku?" Mickey asked gravely.

Hanging his head slightly, and offering a silent apology to his friend, he replied, "I ran into Sora. It looks like the rumours about him might be a lot truer than we hoped. He's got a great darkness in him; I could smell it the second I arrived on the island he was on."

"And Kairi?" If Sora had truly turned to Darkness, he might go about collecting the Princesses of Heart to open Kingdom Hearts, and it was a risk Mickey wasn't willing to take.

Riku shifted uneasily again. "They're... together." He let that sink in a moment before adding, "And I don't just mean hanging out. I mean they're... **together**." Sighing, he continued, "When she told me Sora'd asked her out, I made my excuses and high-tailed it outta there."

The king sighed, setting his book aside. "I was afraid this would happen." Pacing around the library a little, Mickey continued, "Welp, you know what you have to do Riku. We've got to separate them. There's no telling what'll happen to Kairi if she's exposed to Sora's darkness for too long. You're gonna have to bring her here. If the situation's as bad as I think it is, he won't be able to set foot in this castle."

"I can't do that!" Riku balked. "They're my friends! If I do this to them, Kairi will hate me for the rest of her life. Or at least the rest of my life, which will probably be very short as Sora will hunt me down and kill me. You remember what he was prepared to do to get her back when the Organization had her, or what he actually **did** in Hollow Bastion for her. If he'd kill _himself_ to get her back, he's not going to balk at killing someone _else_ for her."

Giving him a patient, yet firm, look, Mickey replied, "Riku, you know as well as I do that in order to do the right thing, some times we need to go against our own hearts."

Stalking off, a scowl on his face, Riku yelled back, "Fine! But I want it on record I'm doing this under duress!"

As the door swung closed, Mickey sighed, whispering, "It looks like my premonition is coming true after all..."

o-o-o

"Riku's been gone a long time," Kairi commented suddenly. "I know we freaked him out with the whole 'dating' thing, but I didn't think he wouldn't want to hang out with us like old times anymore."

The young couple had been having a grand old time in the water, splashing each other, racing, wrestling, and what have you. As such, they'd quickly lost track of time. Glancing up towards the sun, and realising just how much time had passed, Sora paled slightly, commenting quietly, "Oh that son of a bitch..." When Kairi shot him a curious look, he added quickly, "Towel off Kai. We need to leave. Like, now."

"But why Sora?" The girl asked, as the pair raced back to the shore.

"Riku sold us out," The keyblade master growled out, "He's not on Destiny Islands anymore. That means he's gone back to Disney Castle to tell Mickey about me."

"Well, isn't that a good thing?" She asked breathlessly as they headed towards the cabin, "I mean, won't Mickey be able to find a way to, like, fix this?"

"It's Mickey's fault this happened to me in the first place," Sora replied wryly, with a sharp twist of anger to his words; directed at the mouse king, of course, not Kairi. "Besides, look at us Kairi. A Princess of Heart, and a fallen Keyblade Master. He's not going to let us be together."

_That_ spurred Kairi into action; she'd just gotten her Sora back, and **no** **one** was going to take him from her. Quickly towelling off, she exclaimed suddenly, "Oh, but I'm still gonna need to get all my things from home."

"Already being taken care of Kai."

The certainty with which he said that made her pause. There was only one way he could have that taken care of; he had someone, or rather, some_thing_, collecting her stuff for her. "You can control the Heartless now can't you Sora?"

Eyes widening at the question, he replied hurriedly, "No!" At the glare she gave him, he amended, "Okay, yes, I can, but I hate using them. Always makes me feel so unclean afterwards."

One hand on her hip, she shot him a sideways look. "So how do you have everything taken care of then, hmm?"

He sighed. "Nobodies. They're smarter than Heartless, and since they're neither Light nor Dark, they're less soul-corrupting to use. I've got them collecting a bunch of clothes, toiletries, and what have you, plus anything that looked important."

Ducking into the cabin to get dressed, she called out through the door, "So how am I meant to carry all this then?"

Slipping into the room, mainly because his own clothes were in there too, he replied cryptically, "The same way I carry all the crap I've got with me." The two dressed silently, though not without an appreciative glance or two at their partner, before slipping outside again. Fortunately, they didn't need to wait very long until a white-and-black portal opened, releasing a Dusk wearing a pink backpack.

Grabbing the pack off the silvery creature, Kairi quickly looked through its contents, slightly amazed by just how much stuff there was in here. Satisfied she had everything she couldn't replace, she swung the backpack up onto her shoulders, nodding. "Right, let's go."

"I'm afraid I can't allow that," a stern voice declared, moments before a Corridor of Darkness opened, yielding a pre-armed Riku, Way to the Dawn already in hand. "I don't want this to get ugly, but I need you to come with me Kairi."

Before she could explode at their supposed friend, and Sora could see she'd already chosen a few choice words not generally spoken by nice, civilised girls, Sora used one hand to gently push her behind him, replying coldly, "I don't think so Riku. Kairi's mine, as I'm hers, and she's coming with me." His glare darkening slightly as he held his hands out to either side, summoning Oblivion and his new keyblade both, he added, "You're right about one thing though. You _don't_ want this getting ugly. I don't want to have to hurt you, but you're not taking Kairi away from me, not now, not ever."

With a flourish, Riku threw off his black cloak, to ensure maximum manoeuvrability, his fist clenching around the hilt of his keyblade as the cloak floated to the ground behind him. "We'll see about that Sora. We'll see."

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Author's Notes

I probably could have had this chapter releaed a few days ago, but I was waiting until I'd gotten the next one mostly written first. For some reason, this story has been really easy to write so far, and I don't know whether I should be pleased, or worried for the future of my _other_ on-going story project. In any case, progress is progress.

[1] This was my beta reader's idea, one he specifically asked me to quote him on, as follows:

"This fic has the small intention of stripping away presumptions. The presumption, in this case, is that a piece of fruit makes people love each other forever. But there's a reality to it, but that reality doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing; in fact, it's actually rather nice. Because it gives kids a sense of wonder and dedication, along with giving young lovers a helping hand."


	4. Tied to the Darkness

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 03 - Tied to the Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

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_This world has been connected.  
Tied to the darkness.  
Soon to be completely eclipsed._

_There is so very much to learn.  
You understand so little._

_...A meaningless effort.  
One who knows nothing can understand... nothing._

Sora wasn't entirely sure why the words of the shadowy figure that had haunted the Secret Cave, a being he would later come to know as the Heartless Ansem, echoed through his mind now. As he stared down his long-time friend and part-time rival Riku, Sora mused that, perhaps the words returned to him now because, to this day, Riku was still haunted by the ghosts of his past, that one in particular.

And Sora could tell, looking back, that all Ansem ever really was, was a ghost. Until he possessed Riku, he had no physical form, which was why he had been able to come to the islands prior to the Heartless invasion; despite being a Heartless, Ansem had no real heart. In a way, Ansem had even less right to exist than Xemnas did. Xemnas, at least, had originally been human, while Ansem was just a mass of darkness surrounding an imitation heart.

He didn't know how he knew this, he just knew. Maybe it was his new powers, or maybe just the insight of Roxas and Aros, but Sora knew that Ansem only truly existed as long as he had a human host, a heart he could hijack. And he'd hijacked Riku's. The fact that Riku had assumed Ansem's form when he descended deep enough into darkness was proof the scars, and possibly even the ghost itself, still remained in Riku's heart, and as his friend, Sora took it upon himself to help Riku free himself.

However, this proved to be one of those times he'd have to be cruel to be kind.

Reversing his grip on the keyblade in his left hand, Sora dropped into a stance he'd seen while in the Land of the Dragons, both keyblades horizontal in front of him, right over left, both blades pointing towards the left. Glaring at his would-be opponent, Sora remarked coldly, "You're not taking her Riku."

Sliding into his own stance, his left hand held forward, and his right holding his keyblade above his head, Riku replied, "She's not safe with you Sora."

"And she is with you?" Sora shot back.

Trying to hide a wince at the dig, Riku replied, "She wouldn't be staying with me. I'm taking her to King Mickey at Disney Castle."

"That's not much better," Sora quipped dryly. "Right now I trust Mickey only slightly more than **Hades**, and a hell of a lot less than you. There are only two people I trust right now: Kairi, and myself, and I don't even trust myself all that much without Kairi by my side."

Riku, it seemed, didn't have a come back to that. Instead, he changed topics slightly, asking, "Why did you attack those other planets on the outer rim?" At Sora's confused and somewhat baffled look, he continued, "Don't try to deny it. Reports were that the attacker had spiky hair, and a keyblade; there's only one person that fits that description."

"What are you talking about Riku? Do you _really_ think I'd do that?" Sora growled, clenching his keyblades tighter; with the darkness in him, the urge to attack was almost overwhelming, but he restrained himself, for Kairi's sake if nothing else. "Besides, I've been in a holding cell in the Underworld for the past three months; I only just got out yesterday, and I came straight here."

Riku wanted to call Sora a liar for that, he really did, but Sora had always been a **terrible** liar. Faltering slightly, the lavender-haired teen asked sceptically, just in case Sora _had_ learned how to lie well, "Oh really? Then who do you think's been behind all the assaults this past month?"

Sora shrugged. "How would I know? I've been chained to a wall for-" Cutting himself off sharply, he mouths 'past month' before muttering, "Oh that son of a bitch..." Shaking his head, the keyblade master remarked, "It's Hades. He's trying to set me up."

"Hades doesn't have a keyblade," Riku deadpanned.

"He does now," Sora replied in a similar tone. "He got one a month ago, as a result of the experiments he ran on me, that would never have happened if Mickey hadn't sent me to the Underworld to stop the experiments that Hades didn't even know he was supposed to be doing until I told him what I was there to stop." Sora was rambling now, and he knew it, but he was more than a little angry at Mickey for what had happened to him.

Riku was more than a little lost after that rant, so he switched tactics, asking directly, "Why did you surrender your heart to the darkness?"

Sora grinned between his keyblades. "I didn't. My heart still belongs to me." His grin turned into something of a smirk as he started phase one of his plan. "Which is more than I can say for you." Riku's eyes widened in shock at what Sora was implying, but before he could say anything, the brown-haired teen continued, "I gave in to the darkness to save my life, and to keep Kairi safe. Why did you do it Riku?" Again, before his long time friend could reply, Sora pressed on, "I already know exactly why. Jealousy."

Eyes widening a fraction, Riku's hand clenched his keyblade tighter as he growled, "That's a lie!"

"Is it?" Sora's grinned like a shark at Riku's defensive tone. "For eight years I looked up to you. You were my idol, and you loved that, did you? Being the eldest? But then I found Kairi on the beach, after the meteor shower, and she and I soon became friends; but you couldn't have that could you Riku? You couldn't stand that I had something you didn't; thus, we became rivals, with you constantly trying to beat me, to 'win' Kairi from me. Isn't that right?"

An uncomfortable silence fell across the island, Kairi watching Riku's reaction, and Riku in turn staring at Sora in shock. "When... How..."

"How did I know?" Sora grinned wryly. "I know I was never very observant, but you weren't particularly subtle." That, and Aros had gone over his memories with a fine-toothed comb, filling Sora in on everything he'd seen, but not observed. "For a while, you always beat me, but I started improving, first tying with you, then starting to beat you. Then you got it in your head that you were wanted to explore other worlds. It was your desire to leave here so badly that first brought Ansem to the islands. And that was your chance, wasn't it? Your chance to get stronger, to beat me. Your chance to win Kairi once and for all."

"That's not true!" Riku shouted, more desperate than angry.

"It **is** true." Sora replied, digging the knife in. "Ansem himself told me that it was your desire to escape the prison you felt the islands had become that brought the darkness here."

"Shut up!" With a cry, Riku lunged forward, swiping wildly with his keyblade.

Still grinning, Sora parried his wild assault with ease, continuing to taunt his opponent. "The darkness in your heart led you to Maleficent, who promised to help you get Kairi, didn't she? But when you saw I'd acquired the keyblade, that just made you even more jealous didn't it? One more thing I had that you didn't. One more thing that made me special. So you threw yourself into the darkness, to strengthen your heart, so you could steal the keyblade off me, in the hope you could save the princess from the evil dragon. But Kairi had already chosen her saviour, hadn't she?"

Gathering dark fire in his left hand, Riku launched the Dark Firaga with another shout of, "Shut up!"

Raising Oblivion over his head, Sora formed a Reflectga shield, the dark fire splattering harmlessly against the dome of hexagonal light. Dropping the shield, he raised his left keyblade just in time to parry Riku's follow-up assault, locking Way to the Dawn between one of the sets of spikes. "Kairi chose **me**; you saw that when I reclaimed my keyblade, didn't you? When the islands fell, Kairi gave her heart to _me_, and that tore you up inside, didn't it? That's why you gave in to Ansem, isn't it? Why you became his pawn; because you couldn't stand the fact that Kairi had chosen me. But with the dark keyblade Ansem promised you, you could get her back, couldn't you? You could take her heart from me, by force. But even with all your dark strength, I still won. It was still _me_ who saved Kairi."

Throwing all his weight onto his keyblade, forcing Sora to one knee, Riku cried out, "Why are you doing this?"

Swinging his other keyblade around to join the clash, he shoved Riku back roughly, climbing back to his feet. "To open your eyes. Twice now I have given myself to the darkness for Kairi: first when I stabbed myself with your dark keyblade, becoming a Heartless, and creating Roxas and Namine; and second, when I joined with my Heartless and Nobody, to fight off the darkness that would have consumed me, leaving me as you see now. Both times, it was Kairi who saved me, though this time, her influence was less direct."

Panting slightly, Riku glared at Sora through red-rimmed eyes; the teen had not cried, but he'd not been far off, staving the tears through sheer willpower. "But why? Why dredge up the past now? I've changed."

"Have you really?" Sora replied, waving Oblivion absently at him. "From where I'm standing nothing's really changed; you've just traded one master for another. First Maleficent, then Ansem. Next it was DiZ. Then, finally, Mickey. You're still just a puppet, dancing when they pull your strings. When are you going to start thinking for yourself?"

Standing to his full height, Riku forced his face to relax, intoning coldly, "Aren't you the one trying to puppet me now? What makes you think you're better than them? Than me?"

Sora shrugged. "Perhaps I am. However, I'm not the one leaving you trapped in darkness. I'm not the one using you like an attack dog, keeping you chained up until I need you to bite someone. I'm trying to help you find the way out."

"What makes you think there's a way out?" Riku asked, a twinge of hope in his tone.

Sora smiled. "Because I've already found it, I just can't reach it yet. The darkness in me is too strong, and if I'm to ever truly be rid of it, I need to destroy the source. But I've found the light hidden in the darkness, and that gives me hope." Turning to his girlfriend, Sora added softly, "Kairi is my light. As long as she's with me, the darkness can never claim me." Turning back to Riku, he commented simply, "You just need to find your light, like I did."

"If your heart is this great fortress of light, how come you can't use Oathkeeper any more?" Riku asked hotly; it was a fairly well known fact that the keyblade created from Kairi's lucky charm, like her, was aligned to the light.

"Can't?" Sora questioned, one eyebrow raised. "There's no reason I _can't_, but there are two reasons I _don't_. First, Oblivion and Twilight Thorn-" he indicated the keyblade in his left hand "-represent the beings that sacrificed themselves to save me from the darkness: Roxas-" he raised Twilight Thorn "-and Aros. Two halves of me, my Nobody, and Heartless. Second," Sora shrugged simply, "I gave Oathkeeper back to Kairi. She gave me Oathkeeper so I would return to her. Her light brought me back."

His keyblade slipping from his fingers as Riku admitted defeat, Way to the Dawn returning to wherever the enchanted weapons went when not needed in a shower of sparks before ever hitting the ground, Riku asked quietly, "How do I find my light?"

"I don't know," Sora shook his head sadly. "I know, deep down, part of you still hoped that Kairi could be your light; that's why I said what I did, to force your heart to move past the illusions it was under. It was the only way to start you on your way to freedom, to finding your own light. We're more alike now than ever, Riku, two souls lost in the darkness, and I'm just as afraid as you are. Your time in the darkness has given you a strength that I may never have. That's why I can't let you take Kairi, my light, away from me, or I may be lost in the darkness forever. I can't help you find your light Riku; that's something you need to do alone."

Hanging his head slightly, his eyes hidden by his long bangs, Riku muttered, "But, Mickey-"

"Mickey wouldn't help you even if he could, Riku," Sora cut in, with more vehemence than either of his friends had ever heard before. "Mickey is the one who got me _into_ this situation in the first place. I don't know why, but I can feel it down to my soul. He's scared of us, of what we represent, so he'll leave us in darkness, using us to fight his wars for him, while he remains a shining beacon of light. If he was really trying to bring you to the light, why was he training you to harness the darkness?"

"You're just saying that," Riku didn't want to doubt King Mickey, but Sora's words rang painfully true, "How could you know any of this?"

"The Fates," Sora replied simply, "I ran into them while escaping the Underworld. They love to talk, especially about futures that might have been. And they can't lie." Sighing, Sora remarked, "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"Sorry? For what?" Riku could think of a number of things Sora might be sorry for; throwing a sledgehammer through the plate-glass window that was his world chief among them. He was way off.

"For this." Before Riku knew what hit him, something hard slammed into the back of his head, and fell to his knees, before collapsing onto the sand. His vision was fading fast, but he saw Kairi walk over to Sora, having snuck behind him during the end of that exchange; ironically, or perhaps poetically, she had Oathkeeper in hand, the weapon she'd struck him with. As he watched Sora wrap one arm around Kairi through his rapidly fading vision, he knew, in the back of his mind, they'd be long gone before he awoke.

o-o-o

With a wave of her hand, Maleficent banished the image before her, showing a battered Riku lying almost face-first in the sand. "So, my former apprentice still battles with the darkness on his side," she remarked to herself consideringly. "Perhaps I can use that to my advantage." Sitting back in her throne, the dark fairy, or witch as she preferred to be called, allowed herself a moment to rest. While she had still been able to scry for Riku as always, it had taken a considerable amount more effort than normal this time.

She understood why though. Destiny Islands was hidden from the worlds around, so said the records she'd acquired both from Hollow Bastion (a much better name than 'Radiant Garden' in her opinion) and here in the library of The Castle That Never Was (she was, as of yet, undecided about whether to rename her new sanctum). Early on during her stay here, she had discovered that the castle bended to the will of the 'master', reshaping itself as the need arose. Thus, after that brat Sora and her former apprentice had slain the fool Xemnas, she was free to claim the castle as her own.

Already she had uncovered a great many things. In the Nobody Graveyard, she had discovered that the 'graves' led to the rooms those Nobody's spent their time, and it hadn't taken much effort on her part to repair those pathways. Several of those Nobodies had rather interesting research material, including notes from their human lives on the machine they had used to create Heartless, the one inside the castle on Radiant Garden.

Additionally, she had discovered what could only have been their meeting room, which she had already remodelled to suit her own taste, and it was where she sat now, planning her next move. Having consolidated her holdings, her touch seen everywhere through the mass of thorned vines choking the castle, and her army of Heartless roaming freely throughout, her next move was to gather her allies to assist her in repairing Kingdom Hearts after that fool DiZ blasted a hole in it.

The heart-outline that was left of Kingdom Hearts, glowing what could only be described as an angry pink rather than the serene blue she had seen when she'd first arrived, mocked her constantly. All her goals, so close, and yet, so impossibly out of reach. Control over the lesser Nobodies, she had quickly discovered, was beyond her; Nobodies only listened to stronger Nobodies. As far as she could see, possessing a heart placed controlling the Nobodies impossible.

Nonetheless, her Heartless had made short work of the remaining Nobodies, in the wake of the Organization's fall, and to reclaim the power that was rightfully hers. For lack of a better option, she'd tasked that foolish lummox Pete with scouting out some potential new allies, though with such fools as Jafar and Oogie Boogie having already been beaten twice by Sora, she doubted anyone Pete could find would last all that long once the Keyblade Master's attention was upon her again.

With luck, they'd slow him down enough for her to finish her work.

Her musing was interrupted by a familiar voice declaring, "Nice place. You're really moving up in the world."

Turning to face the speaker, Maleficent smiled coldly, remarking, "Well, I didn't expect to see you, after what happened last time."

With a shrug and his usual aloof grin, Hades replied, "Yeah, well, good help is hard to find these days, ya know?"

Relaxing back into her seat, she waved her staff and conjured another at the opposite end of the table for her old colleague. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I have something of a business proposition for you," the dark God replied, taking the offered seat, "You see, I've a bit of a venture underway, but I'm somewhat lacking in reliable manpower, you know what I mean."

Her mind mulling over the fact she was stuck with Pete for help, the witch nodded, "That I do. Now, what does this venture of yours entail?"

Hades smiled, holding out his right hand. "This." With a flare of blue flame, an item appeared in Hades' grip. About two-and-a-half to three feet in length, the midnight-black shaft met his hand in the middle of a blue-flame design ellipse, and topped at the other end by a bar of flame roughly half a foot, the flame spikes of various lengths.

Her eyes widening in anticipation as she glanced over the keyblade in Hades' hand, she smiled back. "I think we can come to an arrangement."

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Author's Notes

Wow, I am _so_ sorry it took this long to get this chapter out. It's been finished for well over a week, if not nearing on two, but I thought I'd already uploaded it, so I spent my time working on chapters 4, and now 5. It wasn't until I went to upload chapter 4 that I'd found I hadn't even uploaded chapter 3, so, here it is. Incidentally, I was laid off from my job about a week and a half ago, so that may have thrown off my internal clock somewhat. On the plus side, I now have a lot more time to write.

Also, as Shinku Ryuuga asked in his review, yes, the second keyblade Sora has is the one you get from defeating Roxas in Final Mix+. Officially, it's named Two Across if you want to google for a picture, but the name I originally heard for it was Twilight Thorn, and I think it suits the weapon far better, so that's the name I'm using.

In other news, it seems, with the revealing of Xion, the fourteenth member of Organization XIII, and her looking like a dark-haired Kairi, that every author has his or her opinion about how, exactly, Xion came to exist. I, myself, am no exception. However, as I seriously doubt I'll be using it in the course of this story, I might as well explain my opinion now.

My original theory was that she was created due to Namine's influence on Sora's memories, possibly as a side effect, possibly as a 'container' to keep them in. This would explain how, reportedly, she needed to cease to exist before Sora could awaken. The second theory I had was that she was created artificially, ala the Riku Replica, for the purpose of controlling Roxas; after all, Roxas had never met Namine prior to KH2, so perhaps they used Xion as Roxas' Kairi, if you will, to keep him under their control and doing what they asked.

If anyone has their own opinion about Xion, I'd love to hear it. Until then, enjoy, and I'll try to have the next chapter up in a couple of days. I'm working on one more after that before I return to Disturbance to (hopefully) finish up my business there.


	5. Light within the Darkness

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 04 - Light within the Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

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_I have to undo the links I made. Then I have to gather up the memories scattered in your hearts and reconnect them.  
You have to choose, Sora. You can lose your memories of this castle and reclaim your old memories...or keep your memories here and give up the memories that you've lost.  
Who needs false memories, right? Especially when you have real memories of people who are really important to you. Anyone would say the same.  
The loose links will sink into the darkness in your heart. You won't be able to just reach in and pick the one you want. But there's another promise you made - a promise to someone you could never replace. She's your light. The light within the darkness. If you can remember her...all the memories lost in the shadows of your heart will come into the light.  
One day it'll be our light, the light that brings us together. I'll be in your heart until that time comes._

"Are you okay Sora?"

"Yeah, I'm fine Kairi," Sora replied quickly, shaking his head to clear away the old memories. Sparing a glance at his girlfriend, he smiled reassuringly, pushing the newly recovered memories to the back of his mind; now was not the time to talk of such things.

They had more important business to attend to.

"So how does it feel to be back home?" Sora asked, if only to break the silence. "I mean, I know you've been here before, but we didn't really have time to sight-see then."

Casting her eyes around the reconstructed town, much more densely populated than Destiny Islands, Kairi shook her head slowly, replying, "This isn't home. Just, where I was born. Home is where the heart is." Wrapping her arms around him from behind, she added, "With you."

A smile on her face, Sora spun around in her grip, wrapping his arms around her in turn and giving her a quick kiss before commenting cheekily, "I thought I was meant to be the hopeless romantic Kai. You trying to take my job?"

A light blush coating her cheeks, just like he'd planned, she replied, "I guess you're rubbing off on me." There were a few seconds of silence, before Kairi realised the implications of that statement, blushed brilliantly, and buried her head in Sora's chest.

Higher level brain functions offline, Sora blinked owlishly for a moment, before lowering his head to whisper in her ear, a playful smirk on his face. "I didn't think you were so forward Kairi." Looking around as if considering the situation, he added, "I don't think this is the ideal place for that, but if you wanna wait 'til later..." He trailed off, the couple both knowing what he was implying, and after a few moments of peaceful silence, she nodded slightly against his chest.

After a few more moments in each other's arms, the two continued their walk, Kairi asking curiously, "So why aren't we just going to... uh, was it Merlin? Yeah, Merlin's place?"

Sora sighed slightly, replying, "I just... don't know who I can trust right now. When it comes down to it, in the grand scheme of things we're now against Mickey, and some of the people around here would, I think, side with him over me. I think Merlin's one of them, and he's already proven to me that he's quite capable of teleporting himself, _and_ other people, to Disney Castle."

Sighing sadly herself, she continued, "So, what, we're just gonna walk around town and hope we run into one of the others?"

Before Sora could respond, his sense of impending danger, honed through many, MANY battles, almost screamed at him to move. Spinning around and grabbing Kairi around the waist, he used his Quick Run ability to dart to one side, moments before a giant steel star imbedded into the paved road where they'd been standing. "As I was going to say," the keyblade master remarked quietly, "I don't think we'll have to look long."

"Looks like your luck's run out, stranger, because you've run into the Great Ninja Yuffie!" A voice announced from on high, and approaching rapidly. "So you thought you could come here and mess up our world? Well not on m- Sora?" The confused inquiry came moments before the dark haired teen that was Yuffie Kisaragi landed on the ground before them. Sora smiled slightly when he saw she was still wearing the same outfit as the last time he saw her.

"Hey Yuffie," Sora replied in greeting. "I'm sure you remember Kairi." He indicated the girl in his arms, before nodding towards her shuriken and asking, "So what gives?"

Laughing nervously, the slightly older girl snatched her weapon out of the hole she'd made, 'hiding' it behind her back as she explained. "Well, ya see, we've been hearing all these reports about a dark stranger doing all sort of damage to some of the more outer worlds, so we've kinda been on a bit of an alert state until we learn more. Then I saw you; well, I saw _someone_ I don't normally see on my run, so I thought, 'aha, there he is', and attacked. Uh, sorry..."

Waving her apology away with the hand not holding Kairi, he replied, "Eh, no problem." Getting quickly to business, he asked, "Hey, did Cloud end up finding his way back here?"

"Hm?" Yuffie blinked a moment, before replying in her usual cheerful voice, "Oh, yeah, Blondie stumbled back in a month or so ago. Tifa hasn't left his side since. I think she's worried he'll dissolve into sand or something if she's not there to keep an eye on him."

"Can you ask him to meet me in-" he struggled to think of a place Merlin wasn't likely to go, before continuing, "-the computer room? I've got something I need to talk to him about, but I'd like to catch up with Tron too, see how he's been."

"Such a task is child's play for the Great Ninja Yuffie!" She exclaimed dramatically, a cheesy grin on her face as she did it. When she received the desired laugh, she added, "Great Ninja Yuffie away!" and leapt onto the nearest rooftop, amused laughter following her.

Once she was out of sight, Sora continued to lead his girlfriend, saying, "Come on Kairi, I've got an old friend to introduce you to."

o-o-o

The path through to the castle was a lot cleaner, far more rebuilt than Sora remembered it, and it brought a smile to Sora's face. Radiant Garden was healing from the wounds dealt to it by Maleficent and the Heartless. That said, he was infinitely grateful they didn't run into anyone along the way; didn't mean they wouldn't, though, so the couple walked in as close to silence as they could get navigating first the metal walkways outside, then the narrow hallways inside the castle.

Reaching the office that first belonged to Ansem the Wise, then by Xehanort when he overthrew his teacher, Sora held one finger to his lips to indicate silence, before carefully opening the door. The circular room behind had been cleaned up since the last time he'd been here, all signs of Tifa's ransa- uh, search, removed, though the fake wall leading to the computer room was still open. Waving the girl in, he closed the door behind them, before edging towards the computer.

Breathing a sigh of relief when he found no one, he called out, "It's okay Kai, it's clear." The teen smiled brightly as his princess rounded the corner, leading her to the computer console before calling out, "Tron, are you here? Or awake? Or whatever it is that applies to you?"

Kairi gave him an odd look for a moment, before jumping when a voice came from the speakers next to her, asking, "User Sora, is that you? I haven't heard from you in ages! Welcome back!"

Chuckling at the look on Kairi's face, he directed her attention to one of the screens nearby, on which a video feed of a silver-skinned man was beginning to play. "Kairi, I'd like to introduce you to Tron. He's the AI in charge of the Hollow Bastion OS." Pausing a moment, he added, "I guess it'd be called Radiant Garden OS now, wouldn't it?"

"Well, that depends," the digitised voice replied, "The OS never existed in it's current form until the User I now know was Xehanort gained root access when he overthrew Ansem, and by then this world had been known as Hollow Bastion for at least a year."

Smiling, Sora asked rhetorically, "You managed to decode more of the corrupted files I take it?"

"Indeed I have User Sora," Tron replied anyway, "Though there are still much that- User Sora?" Tron trailed off, a curious note in his voice, "You appear to have some sort of corruption in your system, perhaps a virus of some kind. Should I try to find an anti-virus?"

Chuckling again, though with a touch of a dark tone to it, Sora replied, "You're welcome to try, but I doubt you'll get anywhere. There's quite a story behind it."

"One I'd love to hear," a new voice interjected, heralding the arrival of Cloud, Tifa by his side. Trailing behind him were Yuffie and Aerith. Casting a quick look at Kairi, the corner of Cloud's mouth quirked slightly as he added, "I see you found your light then."

Sora smiled, hugging Kairi to his side. "That I did." Turning to his girlfriend, he continued, "Kairi, I'm sure you remember Aerith from Traverse Town, and I doubt you could forget Yuffie. The others are Cloud and Tifa."

Aerith gasped as she took in everything about him, her skills as a white mage instantly highlighting his new problem to her. "Oh Sora, what happened?"

"And why'd you want to meet us down here?" Tifa added. "I mean, from what Yuffie said, Merlin's place was a lot closer to where she found you."

Sora sighed. "There's two reasons I wanted to meet you guys here, besides seeing Tron again. Firstly, I wanted to get Tron to record my story, the one that answers Aerith's question, before it spread and got too warped by other parties. Secondly," he shrugged helplessly, "I'm not sure right now who I can trust with this information. Cloud I knew could be trusted with it, because he's had to go through something similar himself. If he trusts you guys enough, that's good enough for me, but I don't think I could trust Merlin to take my side in the conflict I know is coming."

"What conflict?" Cloud asked coolly.

Sighing again, Sora rested against the console behind him, making sure not to press any buttons. "Better get comfortable. It's a long story, and you're not gonna like most of it."

o-o-o

Two hours later, after Sora had finished telling his tale, Sora cast his gaze around the group, observing their reactions. Yuffie was pacing up and down slightly, alternating between looking at him sympathetically, and worriedly muttering, "This is bad, this is very bad," over and over to herself. Aerith was typing something on a nearby terminal, a determined look on her face as she worked with Tron to find a cure. Tifa was in mother grizzly mode, looking a heartbeat away from hunting down Hades and pummelling him into submission herself. Cloud was... well, Cloud.

"So the god of the Underworld has a dark keyblade of unknown power," Cloud commented dryly. "Nothing good can come of this."

"That would make Hades the one attacking the outer worlds then," Aerith mused.

Tifa spat heatedly, "Bastard. Must be testing what his keyblade can do."

"I do have one theory," Sora supplied, "Well, more of a feeling." He waited until everyone was listening, before saying, "I feel that his keyblade is tied to the darkness in me, and unless my senses are wrong, he can use it to unleash similar darkness in other people. They, however, don't have the shielding I do, so..."

"He's making his own Heartless!" Kairi gasped, horrified.

"I believe so," Sora nodded sadly. "If I can destroy that keyblade, I think I can banish this darkness forever, but as long as it exists, he will continue to spread it."

"Then it's up to us to beat it back!" Kairi declared firmly.

Kairi's words seemed to light a fire under everyone, though only half of the assembled group actually showed it, Yuffie chief among them as she spun around, a bright grin on her face as she cried out, "Oh yeah! Now you're talkin'! Let's take the fight to him!"

A smile coming to his face, Sora wrapped one arm around Kairi's waist, remarking, "Now that's the Kairi I know and love. You always know how to cheer me up don't you?" Kairi just smiled bashfully, a rosy blush on her cheeks.

After a few moment's silence, Cloud spoke out, his voice calm as always. "You were right to bring this to our attention. I think I speak for all of us, myself especially, when I say we are quite possibly the most experienced in the worlds at fighting the darkness, save perhaps those of Disney Castle; we, however, understand that there are no absolutes in this life. While I can't fault the king's standing, in a situation like you find yourself in, or like I have myself in the past, such steadfast codes of right and wrong can only hinder the situation."

Rolling her eyes, Tifa translated, "What Cloud's trying to say is we'll look after you."

"Thanks guys," Sora smiled, before sighing, "I just wish we could help Riku too, but he's just too indoctrinated to Mickey's way of thinking. I mean, I know they travelled together and all, but... That's not what he needs right now."

A hint of a smile on his face, Cloud replied, "Don't worry. I'll make a few calls. I've got a few friends who can help out."

Tifa's eyes widened slightly. "You don't mean-?" Cloud nodded once. "And-?" He nodded a second time, a grin raising one half his mouth. Tifa grinned back. "Will he have his phone on?" Cloud just shrugged.

Looking back and forth between the two, Sora asked, "Uh, am I missing something here? What're you guys talking about?"

Aerith smiled. "Cloud's getting the gang back together again."

Blinking, Kairi asked, "Do we know them?"

With a slight giggle, Aerith replied, "Well, you _did_, but you were only four, so it's no wonder you don't remember."

"Oh my god! I just noticed something!" Yuffie exclaimed, after several minutes of studying the group. When the others turned to face her, she pointed between Sora and Kairi, and Cloud and Tifa, adding, "It's like looking into a time warp or something."

Realising quickly what the kunoichi was hinting at, Kairi turned to Sora, hands on her hips, and asked mock-heatedly, "Does that mean I'm gonna have to chase you halfway around the galaxy while you try to battle your darkness without me? Coz if so I'm gonna smack you one now!"

Smiling amusedly as the young redhead mimicked her without even realising it, Tifa added slyly, "I think the more important question is, is Yuffie gonna get obsessed with him? Because I'll tell you, when she was younger she had a massive crush on Cloud here."

"Ack!" The ninja girl exclaimed, spinning around and glaring at Tifa accusingly, "You swore we'd never speak of that again!" Tifa just grinned knowingly, taking notice of the blush adorning the girl's cheeks; obviously, she'd considered it at least once. It wasn't really Yuffie's fault though; Sora really _was_ like a younger Cloud.

An awkward silence fell over the group, broken shortly after when Tron's voice announced, "I've found something!"

Whirling around to the monitor, a baffled look on his face, Sora asked, "You've found a way to deal with this darkness?"

"Well, no, not exactly," Tron's image shrugged, "But my research has born a different fruit. While testing the current form of my anti-virus on a simulated corruption, I found it could be used to decode and de-corrupt more of the files stored in the DTD. In particular, I've found a lot of research notes from Ansem and Xehanort both concerning not only the Heartless, but Princess Kairi as well."

"Can I get that information to go Tron?" Sora asked, before turning to the group, "No doubt Riku's awake by now, and probably already reporting back to Mickey. Kairi and I have to find a place to crash for the night where none of the king's men will find us, and I don't think we can stay here."

A slight smile on his face, Cloud offered, "I know just the place."

o-o-o

"And that's my report, your majesty," Riku stated, trying to ignore the queen fussing behind him, inspecting his 'injury'; he'd said he was fine, but she insisted on checking. Honestly, it was nothing; he'd injured himself worse sparring with Sora years ago. "I... I let them get away."

"It's not your fault Riku," Mickey replied immediately, frowning from his throne. "Sora knocked you out."

"Wha-" Riku blinked; he didn't say that. "No, your majesty, it wasn't Sora." When both royals turned their attention to him again, he continued, "Sora seemed to be going out of his way _not_ to hit me. It was _Kairi_ who knocked me out."

Mickey, it seemed, didn't have an answer to that. Instead, he asked, "Do you know where they might have gone?"

'I can think of a few places.' Riku kept the thought to himself, Sora's suspicions of the mouse-king stilling his tongue. "There were no signs when I came to," Riku replied slowly, "I don't think he used a Corridor of Darkness, because I would've been able to trace it, or at least smell the residue, so he's found some other way of travelling. My guess? They've gone after Hades."

"Sora knows he's no match for Hades one-on-one; he'll be gathering his allies," Mickey mused to himself. Riku's eyebrow twitched at Mickey's admittance that Sora couldn't beat Hades.

"So Hades is the one who's been attacking the worlds then?" Minnie questioned, returning to her throne.

Shifting uncomfortably, Riku replied, "Sora believes so, and I saw no reason to doubt him."

Seemingly having reached a decision, Mickey announced, "I will gather the knights, and began investigating the attacks on the outer worlds. Riku, your task is two-fold: first, find Sora, recover Kairi, and bring her here. If darkness is indeed rising again, either by Hades' hand, or by another-" that he meant Sora was obvious "-the Princesses of Heart **must** be kept safe. Whatever Sora's intention, I believe he will seek out their help first. Your second task is to bring the princesses to the castle; all of them. The Cornerstone of Light will keep them safe."

Riku gaped at the king, eyes wide in shock. 'He wants me to kidnap the Princesses?' Quickly shaking himself from his stupor, he reminded himself that, if Mickey wanted the Princesses of Heart brought to Disney Castle, he must have a good reason, even if Riku himself couldn't see it. Crossing his right arm over his chest, to rest over his heart, he nodded. "Yes, your majesty."

"Start your search for Sora in Radiant Garden," Mickey stated suddenly. "My instincts tell me he's gone there." With another curt nod, Riku strode off; he may not like it, but he had a job to do. 'Sora... Please, don't let me find you. Keep Kairi safe... Even from me.'

o-o-o

A gentle smile on his face, Sora watched Kairi set up their sleeping arrangement for the night, her lithe form shuffling about the cave surprisingly quietly. When Cloud and Tifa had brought them here, to this cave in the ever-less-barren wasteland on the outskirts of town, the blonde-haired fighter had explained that only two residents of Radiant Garden ever came anywhere near here; both lived in separate caves somewhere out here, and both, in Cloud's eyes, could be trusted.

Yuffie, for her part, had gathered up a bunch of supplies for them from town, with the excuse that she 'felt like camping out tonight'; she, of course, fully intended on ninja'ing her way back into the room she'd claimed in the rebuilt castle. However, as she couldn't justify getting more than one of anything, Sora and Kairi would be forced to share the same sleeping bag. He grinned playfully over at her, enjoying the blush that came across her cheeks; the sleeping bag could hold two comfortably anyway, and neither of them minded sharing.

Looking away to gaze out at the ever-darkening sky outside, Sora idly ran his thumb over the new device around his left wrist; Tron had almost regurgitated some massive string of letters to describe it, but Aerith had just cut him off and called it a PPC - Portable Personal Computer. When in standby mode, it looked like nothing more than a standard bracer, and the casing had actually been reinforced with Orichalcum so it could be used as such, but with the simple press of a button, it unfolded into a wrist-mounted mini-computer.

All Sora had actually wanted was the information Tron had found on Kairi, but the AI had insisted he take the device, as well as all the data he had, much of which included information from Jiminy's Journal. When asked why, Tron had just smiled and replied, "Without the court scribe with you any more, we need a way to record your adventures and discoveries." 'And as defence evidence in my trial,' Sora mused with the slightest hint of amusement.

He sighed, unknowingly drawing Kairi's attention. He was stalling, and he knew it, but he didn't know just how to start the conversation that needed to be started. Fortunately, Kairi did it for him. "Sora? What's wrong?"

"Kairi," Sora began uneasily, "Can... Can you still talk to Namine?"

For a brief moment, Sora was deafly afraid he'd said the wrong thing, judging by the look on Kairi's face, before the girl replied quietly, "How did you know?"

Fighting back a sigh of relief, he smiled reassuringly and answered, "Just a feeling I had. After all, if Roxas continued to exist in me, why wouldn't Namine do the same in you?"

Hugging her arms across her chest, Kairi looked away slightly, commenting softly, "I thought I was crazy at first. Thought I'd gotten so worried about you that I had to invent someone to reassure me that you were coming back. But, she knew things I didn't, so I realised that it wasn't just a memory of her voice I was hearing, it was actually her."

"Don't worry Kai, I know you're not crazy," Sora replied, shifting awkwardly as he added, "Truth be told, I thought _I_ was a bit crazy for thinking she'd be able to talk to you still. I mean, I had a feeling she still existed in your heart, I just didn't know how deep she'd be." There was an awkward moment of silence, the couple gathering strength just from the reassuring smile on the other's face, before Sora asked the most important question he had thus far: "Can... Can _I_ talk to her?"

Kairi gave him an odd look, though her smile never slipped. "Well, technically whenever you're talking to me, you're also talking to her, but I know what you mean." Closing her eyes, she focused her thoughts, her body beginning to glow a soft yellow-orange, before the familiar image of a blonde girl in a white dress phased in beside her.

"Hey Sora!" Namine cried out, waving at the teen; Kairi opened her eyes again, looking quite pleased with herself. "What'd you need to tell me?"

Smiling back at the blonde, Sora replied, "Well, first, I need to say 'thank you'." When she looked at him quizzically, he continued, "When I awoke, the words 'Thank Namine' were in Jiminy's journal, but I never got a chance to say it. Plus, I owe you for rescuing Kairi, and for getting her and the others off the Altar of Naught. So, thank you, Namine." The girl glowed with a very familiar rosy blush. Smiling wider, Sora added, "The second thing I needed to tell you is, I remember _why_ I owe you that first 'thank you'." When the translucent girl gasped in shock, he nodded. "I remember Castle Oblivion."

Kairi cast her gaze between the two of them, confusion in her eyes; she'd never heard about this 'Castle Oblivion' before. She didn't, however, intrude on the moment, for now at least. Namine, for her part, looked caught between scared and hopeful as she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, "How...?"

"It's just like you said Namine." Sora explained, "The unlinked memories sank into the darkness within my heart. However, within the darkness of my heart lurked Aros. All of the unlinked memories became part of him, and now that he is once more part of me, those memories have returned."

"And... and you're not mad?" She asked timidly.

Sora just shook his head, still smiling. "No Namine, I'm not mad. I know why you did it."

"Uh," Kairi interrupted, "What, exactly, did she do?"

Turning his gaze to his girlfriend, Sora explained, "The Organization made her take apart and hide my memories, replacing them with false ones, so they could use her as a way of controlling me, making me into some sort of slave, or attack dog, or something. This would've allowed them to construct Kingdom Hearts without fear of me stopping them. Thanks to Axel, however, Namine betrayed them, and after I defeated the Nobody's in the castle, she put me to sleep so she could rebuild my memories. However, as a result of her making me forget, everyone _I_ remembered forgot _me_."

Hanging her head in shame, Namine muttered quietly, "That's not all I did..." Waiting for the others to pay attention to her, she continued, "When I first started messing around with your memories, I was adding myself as a third friend, someone important you'd forgotten. But... But that wasn't enough. Eventually, I started... replacing... your memories of Kairi, with memories of me." Hugging herself, phantasmic tears slipping down her face, she whispered, "I just... wanted to be special... to someone..."

"It's okay Namine," Sora stated reassuringly. "As I said, I know why you did it. You were lonely, weren't you?" The girl nodded. "You were born, if such a word applies, in Castle Oblivion, and you were the only one there. You just wanted someone, anyone, to come, and then the Organization arrived. But you realised that them being there didn't make you any less lonely, because they couldn't feel anything. You wanted someone who _could_ feel. Which is why I was drawn in."

Namine nodded again, remarking sadly, "I'm sorry... If not for me, you'd never have been there..."

Shaking his head slowly, Sora replied, "Namine, don't you get it? You were lonely; you **felt** lonely. It was your **heart** that drew me to Castle Oblivion. Don't you know what this means?" Namine just stared at him, eyes wide in shock, while Kairi sent her curious gaze his way. "You don't remember being Kairi, do you?" The blonde shook her head slowly. "Roxas couldn't remember being me, which is why he sought me out."

"Where are you going with this Sora?" Kairi asked suddenly.

"Nobodies are created from the body and soul of a person whose heart has been consumed by darkness. Now, of those two, the soul arguably contains the memories of a person. Namine doesn't remember being you, Kai, because she remembers _my_ life, don't you Namine?" Too stunned by the revelation to do anything otherwise, the girl in question nodded slowly. "You remembered my childhood, how much fun I had, and, more importantly, you remembered the connection Kairi and I shared, and you wanted that for yourself; that's not a crime. You **are** special Namine, and you always have been, because you could **feel**."

Namine's face lit up; she realised quickly what he meant by that. "You're right! I could feel! But... But that means-"

"You had a heart," Sora finished. "Or, at least, half of one, because you didn't have the _full_ range of emotions; just the ones you felt from my memories, and I know there are emotions I've never felt."

"How could Namine have had a heart?" Kairi asked, feeling a sense of guilt as she realised Namine had given up her existence for **her**.

"Namine had a heart for the same reason Roxas did; she was only half Nobody," Sora replied, with a half shrug. "Roxas was created from my 'body', and Namine my 'soul', if you will. However, because they each only got half the components required to become a Nobody, something, be it The Realm of Nothing, The Realm of In-Between, or hell, maybe even Kingdom Hearts itself, 'filled in the blanks', so to speak. And being only half Nobody, that made them-"

"Half Somebody!" Namine declared happily, before drooping again as she realised something. "Oh, but I'm not even that anymore am I?" She forced a smile. "I gave up my existence to return to Kairi. To be whole."

Easily picking up on her other half's feelings, Kairi asked, "Is there anything that can be done? I mean, I don't want to lose my heart again, but if that'll help Namine..."

When she trailed off, Sora replied slowly, "There is something I can do, but it's risky, for all of us." When both girls nodded at him with a newfound sense of determination, he smiled. "If you're sure."

"What are you going to do Sora?" Namine asked hopefully, though with a touch of fear.

Sora just smiled. "I'm going to give you Roxas' last gift."

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Author's Notes

Okay, I've got one more chapter for this story done, and after that I won't be updating this story at least until I've updated Disturbance again. After that, I'll try to either update them one after another, or at least make sure no more than two chapters of one story are posted before I update the other. I have no intention of abandoning this story. I've still got many grand plans in store.

I'd now like to take a moment to reply to Flurry of Freezing Flames' review. First, I'd like to say thank you, right off the bat. While I am invariably going to put my own spin on things, I am trying to keep things as consistant to the canon Kingdom Hearts 'verse as possible, which is why I have the full scripts to all three games to take direct references from. As such, any help I can get, especially from someone who likes what I'm writing, is appreciated. That said, to quote my beta Ninja, "Relax a little, you'll live longer."

I know Twilight Thorn isn't the name of that particular keyblade; I mentioned as much. I also know Twilight Thorn is the name of the giant Nobody Roxas fights; I've killed it three times myself, I think, or maybe four. However, Twilight Thorn was the first fan-translated name for the keyblade you get for defeating Roxas, and it's kinda stuck as the fanon name, just as the fanon name for Mickey's keyblade is Darkside, the name of the giant Heartless Sora first fights. Plus, you know, Twilight Thorn just _sounds_ better; the name Two Across just doesn't do the weapon justice, though it does explain it's ability a bit better I guess.

Secondly, I honestly don't know how important Xion is in the grand scheme of things, as the only information I've looked up about her comes from the Kingdom Hearts Wiki I found; I'm probably very, very wrong. If you have a source that tells me more, please, pass it on right away, I'd love to know more. If not, well, I plan to get a copy of 358/2 Days as soon as I possibly can, so I can find out then. In the mean time, well, I find theorycrafting inexplicably fun for some reason. :D

Lastly, yes, Vexen is a prick to fight, what with having to either try and get behind his shield, or break it. I'd give you a tip for how to defeat him, but, well, I cheated my way through Chain of Memories using Action Replay codes; or maybe Gameshark, I forget now. I was more interested in the plot than the fights, and frankly, the card-based combat system gave me a headache. For Monstro, however, where are you stuck? I remember navigating through him to be a prick of a thing, but the enemies shouldn't be too hard to defeat. Now Sephiroth, _he_ was an **uber** prick to fight, in both games.

I apologise if I come off as snide or otherwise insulting; I don't mean to. You gave me an honest reply, and I'm trying to give you an honest response. This is just me being me. I hope you keep reading, and keep telling me what you think, both good, and bad. That's what makes people better writers; learning from their mistakes.


	6. Another Side, Another Story

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 05 - Another Side, Another Story

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

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_When a person's heart is stolen, a Heartless is born with no sense of self, and the body and soul left behind give rise to a Nobody.  
But what if one willingly releases one's heart from one's body?  
Sora and Xehanort retained their selfhood even after becoming Heartless.  
Then there are Kairi and Namine.  
Kairi was exceptional for having had no darkness within her heart. Also exceptional was that her heart, once freed, migrated to a new vessel - Sora.  
The combination of the two theoretically unlikely exceptions may be behind this anomaly._

Maleficent set the report aside, a thoughtful look on her face. The reports written by the real Ansem the Wise, not the impostor who had been in charge when the darkness drew her to Hollow Bastion, contained much interesting information; not to say, of course, that Xehanort's reports were less so. Ansem had planned on using the wretched Keybearer to exact his revenge against his fallen apprentices, all while that fool Xemnas used him and his keyblade to construct Kingdom Hearts; or was the term 'summon'? She wasn't sure now.

The reports she'd read cast doubts over whether the heart-shaped moon floating above her castle was **THE** Kingdom Hearts, or merely **A** Kingdom Hearts; or, perhaps, instead, merely a doorway to the true Kingdom Hearts, a single side of an object that spanned all Realms. If the latter were true, then the doorway in the Realm of Darkness had been sealed by Sora, while the doorway here in the Realm of In-Between was damaged, but, as evidenced when the Keybearers had entered it, functional. She merely needed to repair it. It also meant there was a third doorway in the Realm of Light somewhere.

Casting her mind back to the reports she had read, Maleficent pondered Xehanort's actions; after all, if she were to better his legacy and actually succeed in attaining Kingdom Hearts, she needed to learn from his mistakes. Xehanort had willing given himself to the darkness, separating his heart from the rest of his being, to stave off mortality. This had spawned two individuals who, while using different means, strived towards the same goal; one, a Heartless wraith, and the other, a being that didn't truly exist.

Maleficent had fumed for hours when she had first learned that the Heartless wraith calling himself Ansem had, in fact, tricked her into collecting the Princesses of Heart, before overwhelming her in uncontrollable darkness and leaving her to die, having possessed the body of her now-former apprentice; it burned her to know someone had been pulling her strings, when she believed herself the puppet master.

She had smiled, however, upon learning that it had been Xemnas, Ansem's Nobody, who had set into action her resurrection. She knew why of course - so she would send her Heartless to their deaths at the end of Sora's keyblade - but she had outlived him, and had grown stronger than ever before. In the back of her mind, she wondered whether the path he had chosen would yield greater strength again, but she quickly dismissed the idea.

After all, the best-case scenario was for her heart to fail to keep it's human form, becoming a mindless Heartless. Otherwise, there'd be two of her, both after the same prize, and Maleficent was pretty sure she couldn't live with herself, let alone work with another her.

Her musing was cut short when the doors to her audience chamber slowly heaved open, revealing the fat cat-thing that was Pete, with a cloaked stranger following behind him. "What are you doing back here already Pete?" Maleficent hissed scathingly, "I gave you a simple task - find us allies."

"Ev'ryone I found 'tweretn't fit to shine even _my_ shoes, let alone work fer you," Pete replied with much quiver in his voice, before directing her attention to the person with him, "'Cept this one. He found me, lookin' to work fer you, an' I figured him 'mportant enough to bring to you personal-like."

"Oh really?" Maleficent was intrigued, if a bit suspicious, "And just why would you want to work for me?"

"**With** you, not **for** you," a young man's voice corrected hotly from beneath the hood. "Let's get one thing clear now witch. I don't like you. I'm only offering this little partnership because we have a mutually beneficial goal."

Maleficent smiled coldly. "And just what, pray tell, is that?"

The reply was swift. "Destroying Sora once and for all."

This got Maleficent's attention, but she was reserved enough not to let it show, as she asked sharply, "Why?"

His voice strangely hollow, the cloaked figure answered, "Sora took everything from me. I'm merely going to return the favour."

"And why should I assist you in this?" Maleficent asked smoothly. "Watching Sora flounder about does amuse me so, and I will almost certainly need his help in repairing Kingdom Hearts." That was the one thing that irked her about Hades' keyblade. It could awaken, and strengthen, the darkness in people's hearts, but it couldn't then free that heart to rejoin Kingdom Hearts like the other keyblades all could.

"And that would be _my_ end of the bargain," the stranger replied, darkness pooling in his left hand, before forming into a familiar, yet different shape. A keyblade, remarkably like the one she'd seen Riku fight Sora with. However, where the guard of Riku's had a descending demon wing and an ascending angel wing, this keyblade bore two demon wings. Likewise, instead of the blade being a demon wing and the teeth being an angel wing, both were demon wings. "I use Way to the Dusk to destroy enough Heartless to rebuild Kingdom Hearts, and you give me the assistance I need to utterly crush Sora. That's my offer."

Maleficent smiled, nodded once, and asked, "So, what do I call you then?"

The figure pushed back his hood, and were it not for his startling amber eyes rather than the blue she expected, and silver hair instead of violet, she would've sworn she was looking at her former apprentice. "My name," he stated coldly, "Is Xurik."

o-o-o

With a flash of light, Riku summoned Way to the Dawn, his eyes looking about warily, but the only sound he could hear was the hiss of the closing Corridor of Darkness behind him. Taking in the sights around him, Riku noticed that the world had recovered greatly since he had last been here, not that such a feat was particularly hard: when he'd last been here, he'd still been working for Maleficent, and back then, the darkness had corrupted this world to the brink of destruction, leaving just Maleficent's castle hovering above the rising falls.

Riku had quickly discovered during his time in darkness that, in order to harness Corridors of Darkness, you needed to have an exact destination in mind, or you could literally wind up anywhere; if your control was great enough, your destination could be a person, but Riku had never mastered such fine control. To that end, the only 'jump points' Riku remembered on this world were in Maleficent's castle itself, and the platforms of the Rising Falls, and with the castle cut off from the outside now, if he ever hoped to go _anywhere_ he needed to use the point where the Rising Falls used to be.

By luck, or perhaps fate, this placed Riku well outside the town, on the rise within the area he remembered Sora calling the Great Maw, overlooking the ravine between the main world, and the remains of Maleficent's Castle, much of which had been torn apart for materials to assist in the rebuilding of the city; poetic, really, as the castle had been constructed from the remains of the rest of the world anyway.

With a sigh, Riku spread his senses across the terrain around him, using what he'd jokingly dubbed his 'Darkness Radar'; with the Heartless seemingly in retreat, he didn't expect to find much by the way of dark presences on this world, and with the head start Sora'd had, neither did he expect to find him on this world. He was understandably shocked, then, when he felt a massive dark presence nearby. And approaching fast.

'Damnit Sora!' Riku thought to himself angrily, 'You're not supposed to be here! I can only come up with so many excuses for not capturing you before the king decides to do it himself, and he won't be as nice!'

The figure that alighted atop the nearby cliff face, however, was definitely not Sora; for starters, despite the fact he landed in a crouch, Riku could tell this man stood well over six feet when upright, while if he was generous he'd say Sora was five foot five. The locks of black hair atop his head, restrained partially by a deep red headband, resembled more his own hairstyle than his (former?) best friend's. The man wore what looked like a black body suit, cinched around his waist with a double belt, and the knee-high boots on his feet had what looked like golden armour plating along the front and sides.

The most striking features Riku noticed, however, were: first, his **red** eyes; second, the golden claw-like gauntlet covering the man's left arm from the elbow down; and finally, the red cape belted around his chest and shoulders, the tattered ends wavering in the breeze. With a start, Riku realised there **was no** breeze, and his cape was just moving all on it's own. Gritting his teeth and gripping his keyblade in both hands, Riku prepared to do battle with this dark man.

His would be opponent, however, just remarked coldly, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Oh?" Riku replied, "Give me one good reason not to?"

Smirking coldly, the man reached his hand inside his swirling cape, and before Riku could so much as blink, he drew a wicked looking silver tri-barrel gun, about the length of a shotgun, and replied, "How about three?" When Riku made no hostile actions, he continued, "So, are you ready to talk now, or would you still prefer to fight?" After ten seconds of waiting for a reply, he scowled slightly, before adding, "I know exactly why you're here, and more importantly, for whom, and you won't find him. I suggest you leave now."

That unstuck Riku's tongue, as he exclaimed, "I don't think-" The ground in front of him suddenly exploded in a shower of dirt, and tracing his eyes back up again, he could see a slight trail of smoke from the barrels of the weapon in the man's hand.

"I don't miss twice," the man warned seriously. "This world will always be a haven to our princess and her knight, our saviour. Your king may have been a friend of our ruler Ansem, but the courtesy we might show him does not extend to his representatives, and even he would be denied their location. Leave. Now."

"What are you?" Riku asked suddenly.

The man smiled, though the gesture still seemed cold. "I'm nothing. Just a castaway from the darkness." Before Riku could comment further, the man seemed to be consumed by his swirling cape, which then flew off into the distance.

"A castaway from the darkness..." Riku parroted absently. Whether the man knew it or not, he had said almost the exact same thing Riku himself had when he, Kairi, and Sora had all been reunited. New target in mind, Riku used a Corridor of Darkness to teleport to the cliff top above, before setting off after the strange man; Sora could wait. If this man was truly as much like him as Riku thought, he wanted to know everything he did.

o-o-o

"Roxas' last gift? What do you mean Sora?"

"Well, like you Namine, Roxas had half a heart." Sora explained. "That half a heart migrated to me when he and I reunited. What I'm going to do, with both your permission, amounts to a spiritual heart transplant, if you will." Both girls just stared at him blankly. "Okay, you know, when we talk about hearts and Heartless and whatnot, we mean the spiritual heart, not the thing inside our bodies pumping blood, right?"

Smiling a little sheepishly, Kairi replied, "Well, I always wondered..."

Smiling back, Sora continued, "Heartless and Nobodies can basically be considered ghosts, or wraiths, but whereas a ghost is what's left behind when a person's soul leaves their body, a Heartless is what's left behind when the heart leaves. This basically causes the person to 'die', creating a Nobody; however, unlike death, the process can be reversed if the heart and Nobody are brought together again. But I digress."

"Where did you learn all of this from anyway Sora?" Namine asked suddenly.

"Master Yen Sid," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck, "During the whole Organization debacle I paid him a visit a few times, to get his insight into things. Anyway, what I'm planning to so, is to give Namine the heart-half I have from Roxas, combining it with hers to make a complete heart, then using Kairi's light to recreate Namine's body, like she managed to do with mine a year or so ago."

Nodding, Kairi replied, "Okay, that makes sense. But what are the risks you were talking about?"

"Probably more than I know," Sora answered slowly, "But the one I'm most worried about is that my darkness will overwhelm your light and crush your heart."

While Namine looked a little worried about this, Kairi didn't bat an eyelash, merely smiling reassuringly at Sora and saying, "It's okay Sora. I trust you."

"No Kairi, I can't let you do this!" Namine exclaimed. "I'm not going to let you risk your life for me."

"You risked your existence for me," Kairi replied, "It's only fair I do the same for you." Turning to Sora, she added, "I'm ready whenever you are Sora."

The keyblade master paused, waiting until Namine nodded her approval, which the girl did so slowly upon seeing Kairi's resolve, before beginning. Closing his eyes, Sora held his hands over his heart, concentrating for a moment, before shouting, "Light! Give me strength!" His body was consumed by a near blinding light, a light that died down to reveal a form neither girl expected to see so soon. His black clothes had changed to a magnificent silver, with black highlights, and as he hovered half a foot off the ground, the girls noticed two keyblades floating behind him, crossed over each other, and spinning occasionally.

The first was a blue-and-gold filigree design, accentuated at key points with open golden hearts, and topped with a golden crown. The second looked, at it's core, like a true sword, with a gold filigree wing stretching across the blade from the centre, and crown-like teeth held on with a filigree arch. Both girls could each say they knew one of the keyblades as the Ultima Weapon; however, each girl knew a different keyblade. Both girls gasped at the sight, but it was Namine who spoke, pointing one finger at the weapon she recognized and asking, "How?"

"I don't have time to explain," Sora replied apologetically, "I can only hold this form for so long, and it's the only way I can safely channel Kairi's light." Taking a deep breath, he reached back and grasped his two keyblades, holding them out to either side and adding, "Okay, here we go. This may feel... uncomfortable."

What happened next was something Kairi would never forget. Sora released his two keyblades again, and after flying through the air on their own for a moment, each blade fired a beam of light, one into Namine's chest, and one into Sora's. The beams began to draw back a moment later, though this time something came out with them; just like Sora described, half of a crystalline pink heart. The two keyblades changed angles, bringing the two heart halves together, where they merged into one almost instantly upon contact. Then, together, the keyblades aimed the heart at Namine, and the beams of light extended, implanting the heart into her chest.

The blonde girl's eyes widened in wonder at the sensation, whispering, "I feel..." A massive grin splitting her face, she exclaimed, "I feel!"

Sora smiled. "Now, for the next stage. Kairi, take my hand."

Doing as her boyfriend asked, Kairi moved over to him and reached to grasp his hand. However, just before she could make contact, one of his keyblades, the Ultima Weapon she recognized, floated down between them, so they each ended up holding both the keyblade, and each other's hand. The second Kairi's hand made contact with Sora's, another beam of light fired out of the keyblade, striking Namine dead centre of her new heart.

Kairi could actually feel herself getting tired as Sora channelled her light, but her smile never faded as she watched Namine growing more and more opaque. The whole process was over in under two minutes, but the end results spoke for themselves; Namine, as solid and as beautiful as Kairi herself, staring at her hands in wonder, a brilliant smile on her face. Looking up at the two, as Sora's form faded back to normal, his keyblades vanishing, Namine let out an excited, "I'm real!" before charging them, wrapping one arm around both of them and pulling them both into a massive hug. On impulse, Namine reached up to kiss Sora quickly, before burying her head in their joint shoulders, whispering over, "Thank you."

Turning to smile at each other, Sora and Kairi hugged Namine back, enjoying the moment of closeness and joy.

o-o-o

Riku growled to himself as he looked about, trying to find his target but coming up empty. "Damnit! How can he be so fast?" He muttered angrily.

His angry musing was interrupted by the sound of twisting cloth, and spinning around he saw the man he'd been chasing leaning against the cliff face, glancing at him with disinterest. This time, Riku noticed, he didn't have his weapon drawn, so he quickly banished his keyblade, lest the stranger attack again. Seemingly satisfied now that Riku was likewise unarmed, the stranger asked, "Why did you follow me?"

"I just wanted to talk," Riku replied in what he hoped was a diplomatic tone; he was never all that good at this stuff.

With an annoyed grunt, the red-cloaked man replied, "Then speak your piece and be off."

"We're the same, you and I."

The stranger barked a dry laugh. "No, kid, we're not. Maybe after forty years you could say you were the same as me, maybe not. But we are _similar_, I'll grant you that." Studying him for a moment, he added, "So, you must be Riku."

"How do you know my name?" Riku asked warily.

"Cloud called," he shrugged, "Asked me to look after you when you arrived. Said Sora'd requested it."

Smiling slightly, Riku commented, "Yeah, that sounds like Sora alright."

"If Sora's your friend, why are you trying to find him and take him to your king?" The man asked.

Riku just shrugged helplessly. "I never intended to find him. I just had to look for him before getting on with my other task." Remembering something, he added, "Oh, and after I'm gone, get you get a message to Sora? Tell him the king's sending me to get the other princesses and bring them to the castle. He says it's for their protection, and I want to believe him, but he's always going on about how we're not allowed to meddle in the affairs of other worlds, yet this seems like a glaring breech of that, so I thought he should know."

"Why do you continue to work for Mickey if you're starting to suspect his actions?"

"I'm not, really," Riku replied slowly, "It's just... Sora has his doubts, and I've always tried to trust his judgement, so I'm reserving my opinion until I've got more evidence one way or another. Until then, well... King Mickey was the one that rescued me from the darkness, so for now I'm on his side." Shaking his head, he muttered, "I can't believe I'm telling you all this. I don't even know who you are."

"Vincent." When Riku just stared at him blankly, he added dryly, "My name." Vincent blinked as he noticed something. "You used to work for Maleficent didn't you?" Riku jumped in shock. "I thought so. I remember seeing you in her castle."

"You were in her castle?" Riku asked unsurely. "Why-"

"Because it was all that was left of our world," Vincent replied simply. "Unlike the others, when our world began to fall to darkness, I didn't leave. It was my task to watch over this world. The darkness, after all, could not hurt me."

"Why?"

"That's a story for another time," Vincent replied smoothly, "All you need to know is that my immunity to darkness stems from mastery over the darkness inside me."

"Oh?" Riku remarked, trying not to sound too eager, "And how, exactly, did you do that?"

"Through an old saying, passed on to me by a departed friend," Vincent replied, a strangely sad lilt to his voice, "She told me, 'Sacrifice is the cost of salvation'. A lesson your friend Sora has already learned twice."

"Sacrifice huh?" Riku drawled, "Then what hope is there for someone who has already cast aside everything?"

"The very same thing that has kept me going these many years," Vincent answered. "Self-sacrifice."

"That's not very helpful..." Riku rolled his eyes. "Do all would-be teachers speak in riddles?"

"It's in the manual."

For a second there, the straight-laced tone of Vincent's voice almost made Riku believe there **was** a manual, until he realised how little sense that made. Shaking his head slowly, the teen asked, "When I leave here, how will I find you again?"

"You won't." Was Vincent's response. "Whenever you set foot on Radiant Garden, _I_ will find _you_. I still don't trust you enough not to go hunting for our princess."

"Fair enough." Swinging an arm behind himself, Riku opened a portal of darkness, stepping through without another word; both men knew that pleasant good-byes weren't needed, nor wanted. Satisfied that, for now at least, his job was done, Vincent produced his cell phone from beneath his coat, dialling the one number programmed into it.

He had a message to deliver.

o-o-o

"So, what're you going to do now?"

"What do you mean Kairi?"

"You know _exactly_ what I mean Namine," Kairi grinned suggestively at her new twin.

Namine blushed deeply, which Kairi was forced to admit _was_ pretty cute; if Kairi herself looked that cute blushing, it explained why Sora was making _her_ blush so often. Slowly, the blonde girl replied, "I... I just don't know Kai. I just can't make things make sense."

"Matters of the heart rarely do Nam," Kairi replied, putting her arm around the girl. Shortly after returning Namine to her human form, Sora had left so as to let the two girls have their requisite 'girl time', saying he needed to scout the area for trouble, and Kairi was grateful for the time to talk to her sister; one of the first things they'd done was decide 'sister' was the correct term for each other. "What are you having problems with?"

"It's just..." Namine's blush deepened before she forced herself to admit, "I know I l-love Sora, but I think I love Roxas too, which is why I'm conflicted. Do I like Sora because he's Roxas? Or Roxas because he's Sora? Do I like them both individually? And if so, is being with one cheating on the other? Did I want to be with Roxas because Sora was already spoken for? Does Sora even want me, when he has you? Does-"

"Okay Nam, stop," Kairi cut in firmly. "First, you're not going to take Sora from me, mainly because I'd rip your arms off. Second, Sora is Roxas, and always has been; they're just opposite faces of the same coin. Third, you are me, just as Roxas is Sora. Lastly, it sounds to me like you're thinking too much. What does your _heart_ tell you?"

Namine closed her eyes for a moment, before replying softly, "That I love him." Opening her eyes again, she added, "But, he's with you, so..."

Blushing slightly herself, Kairi replied, "Well... Like I, uh, said earlier, you are me, so..."

The two girls let the idea remain unspoken, despite being obvious to both girls just what Kairi was implying. "And... you'd be okay with... with that?" Namine asked slowly, but hopefully.

Kairi took a moment to gather her thoughts, before nodding slowly and saying, "I kinda... figured this would happen when Sora first suggested returning you to you. Besides, our hearts are linked. I can feel what you do, and I know how it'd make _me_ feel to be kept away from Sora, so..."

"It's... not quite that simple," Namine said hesitantly. When Kairi looked at her curiously, she flushed again, before continuing, "Well, my heart is half you, but it's half Sora as well, so..." When comprehension did not appear on Kairi's face, she added, "Well, I'm... feeling things for you that are... less than sisterly."

Kairi's mouth hung open for a good half second before she managed to get herself together enough to mumble back, "Oh..." Blushing heavily again, she continuing stutteringly, "Well, uh, I guess that would be... Um, I kinda already, um... Uh, I mean, you are me, so, uh... Besides, I think, uh, you being, um, revived, as you did, caused the, uh, link between Sora and me to, um, strengthen, so, uh..."

The two girls trailed off awkwardly, Kairi's arm still around Namine's shoulder comfortingly, but neither girl able to bring themselves to look at the other. Both girls understood exactly what the other was implying, and not just because they could feel each other's emotions; that certainly helped though. Her resolve strengthening when Kairi didn't decide to push her away, Namine turned her head towards Kairi, wrapping her own arm around her as she studied the redhead's face; she idly wondered if it was narcissist to find Kairi attractive, considering she and her sister were practically identical.

Feeling Namine's eyes on her, Kairi turned to face her, and felt her face heat up from her sister's intense gaze; it wasn't an unpleasant heat, however. The two just studied each other for a long moment, before, on some unspoken signal, the two slowly leaned closer to one another. Feeling each other's breath brush across their face, their eyes slid closed, before they closed that final distance, feeling a feather touch on their lips before they pulled back, matching royal blushes staining their cheeks, but a smile on both girl's faces.

"It's nice to see you two getting along." Both girls' eyes snapped open, finding Sora standing before them, a reassuring smile on his face; had it been a teasing smile instead, no doubt he would've been brutally murdered at the hands of two irate females. "I must admit, I was afraid things would be less than civil when I came back."

"H-how long have you been there?" Kairi asked nervously.

Sora crouched down, still smiling like there was nothing to be embarrassed about. "Just long enough to see my two favourite ladies embrace, but not long enough to hear anything you might have said." Glancing over at Namine, he asked, "I take it the two of you have reached a decision you're both satisfied with then?"

Namine glanced at Kairi, and seeing her sister smile and nod, Namine turned back to Sora and nodded, before asking hesitantly, "I, um, I don't suppose you have a second paopu fruit?" Flushing, she added, "I mean, um, technically it's my birthday as well today, so..."

Sora smiled back, holding one hand behind his back and replying, "As a matter of fact Nam..." Unseen to either girl, a small silver portal opened behind him, and a silver-sleeved hand reached out and placed one of the star-shaped fruits in his hand; some times, it really helped to have loyal minions who could go anywhere and get back unseen. Moving closer to the girl, he gently placed the fruit in her hands, whispering, "Happy birthday Namine," before kissing her.

Glorious warmth spread through Namine, filling her with a feeling she'd been longing for all her life. All too soon, however, the kiss ended, Sora moving back to give Namine some space as she decided what to do with the fruit in her hands. "I think..." She said slowly, "That I'd like all three of us to share this." When Sora and Kairi both blinked in shock, she blushed and clarified, "You two have your bond, and that's okay with me, but I'd like my bond to be with both of you. I... I love both of you, so..."

Hugging her sister from behind, Kairi leaned over her left shoulder, asking, "Are you sure Nam?"

Smiling as Sora hugged both girls from the front, enclosing Namine into a hug sandwich, she parroted Sora from the previous night; or rather, earlier this very day. "I can think of nothing I'd like to do more." As she offered the fruit first to Sora, then Kairi, before having some herself, Namine decided that, despite this second life of hers having so far lasted only hours, she had never once felt more alive.

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Author's Notes

Anyone who has ever played _Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories_ has to have known this is exactly how things were going to play out. Hell, even those who haven't should still have seen it coming. And why? Because Namine got dealt a bad hand, one only made worse when DiZ got involved, and everyone deserves a happy ending. Sure, Namine's happy ending should probably be with Roxas, but in this story (for now, at least, and probably forever) Roxas has sadly ceased to exist, giving his life to save Sora; therefore, it's Sora's job to give Namine her happy ending.

Of course, if anyone doesn't like that, they're free to read something else.

I probably should've had this out a week ago, but I've been distracted. That said, this is the last chapter I've got written for this story, and until I update Disturbance again, the last that I will be writing. Don't think for a moment I'm gonna abandon this story, though. I just think it's at a suitable point where I can juggle the two, rather than focusing exclusively on one.

To answer my reviewers, first: yes, I am planning on writing lemon scenes, but no, I'll not be posting them on ffn; the mods here frown on that sort of thing, and knowing my luck, it'd be _my_ story that'd get complained about and taken down. I _will_, however, be posting them on my personal site, which I endeavour to get cleaned up and public-ready within the next week or two. Also, no, I am not portraying darkness and evil as the same thing; I'm doing the exact opposite. The catch is, darkness is more often used by people who were _already_ evil than light is, just as light is more often used by good. Light and darkness themselves care not for moral codes, drives, or ambitions, they just are.

Well, stay tuned, coz I hope to have the next chapter out within the next two weeks.


	7. True Memories

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 06 - True Memories

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

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_What to do? Your hero is soon to be wiped from existence. But he made a promise to you, didn't he?_

_Rejoice, Namine. The hero you've longed for is nearly here._

_In your fits of happiness, try not to do anything to hurt Sora's feelings._

_All you need to do is layer the memories, one by one, and bring his heart closer._

_You're all he's got left. If you don't stop this, no one will._

_I promised I'd protect you._

_Who am I going to look after if I don't have you? Erase my memories... I'll still have my promise. I'll still protect you!_

Namine was dreaming. Not too great a surprise; ever since she'd been born, if such a term truly applied to her, every night, she dreamt. This night, she dreamt of Sora, but that, too, was no great surprise; most of the time, if not all but every time, her dreams were about Sora. From when she'd first opened her eyes in Castle Oblivion, she knew Sora, possibly as well as he knew himself; she did, after all, have all of his memories right up until the point he stabbed himself with Riku's keyblade. However, the difference between her, and other Nobodies, was that they weren't _her_ memories.

Unlike most Nobodies, Namine had never been Sora, which had given her a new insight into his memories. Unlike most Nobodies, she didn't see his memories through his eyes; after all, she never had been Sora, so why would she know his memories through his eyes? Instead, she saw his memories as if she'd been with him at all times, a silent figure, a shadow, always by Sora's side. Sora himself wasn't always perfectly clear - Sora, it seemed, couldn't remember exactly what he looked like some times - but still, it felt like she'd been with him ever since the day he was born. Which is why she missed him so much.

It was also what had allowed her to tamper with Sora's memories, to add herself to them as she did. Sora's first, truly clear memory, and quite possibly the most important memory to him, was the day of the meteor shower. The day Kairi had arrived on Destiny Islands. Watching his memories as if she'd been there, she had seen, from their first meeting, that there was a special connection between them, that there existed a bond that would, with time, blossom into the sort of love poets write about, and she'd watched that seed grow, almost to bloom, before the Islands had fallen into darkness.

Namine was fiercely jealous of Kairi. While her head knew that she and Sora had never met, her heart felt like he had been with her always, and jumped to the irrational conclusion that Kairi was going to take Sora away from her. Her head, of course, knew that such a thing was impossible; after all, he was never _hers_ to begin with. That didn't mean it didn't hurt when Sora chose his memories of Kairi over his memories of her, however, she knew she had made Sora make that choice, and had known all along he would never pick her over Kairi. Still, she did what she knew was right, to help Sora, the boy she loved, but could never have.

Even when that meant giving up her only chance for happiness by assisting DiZ in returning Roxas to Sora.

When she returned to Kairi, giving up her separate existence to live more or less in Kairi's heart, Namine had continued to dream. Now, however, the dreams weren't tormenting her with hopes that could never be, because, through Kairi, she _could_ be with Sora. Whenever Kairi went to sleep, so did Namine, and she was allowed to dream once more; occasionally, however, she'd found herself observing Kairi's dreams, and sometimes, she had even been able to influence them, to change Kairi's dreams into her own, albeit with Kairi playing her role, as it were. Still, all in all, life as a heart-ghost was pretty good, considering the way things could have gone, and possibly more than she deserved after what she'd done to him.

Which is why she knew last night, being able to be with Sora in the flesh, had to be a dream.

Half awake, Namine was scared to open her eyes, wanting to live in that dream just a little longer. Her partially conscious mind wondered just why, exactly, she was worried about _her_ eyes at all; after all, she 'awoke' whenever Kairi did, and had almost no control over that. Sure, she could 'sleep' while Kairi was awake by cutting herself off from her host, but it was something she needed to already be awake to do, or have done before going to sleep previously, but she'd done neither of those.

She froze completely as she felt something moving against her back. In all the time she'd been part of Kairi, the feelings and sensations she had shared with Kairi were almost like an echo, like hearing someone's voice rather than being talked to yourself; some of those echoes still made her blush to think of, through all those lonely nights without Sora. This feeling, however, was clear. It was happening to **her**.

Opening her eyes slowly, afraid of what she might find, she felt her heartbeat increase as she saw the smiling, still-sleeping face of her hero and idol, only inches away from her. She could, now that she was truly paying attention, feel his arms around her, and feel his body pressed against hers. She could also feel another body pressed up against her from behind, a very female body at that. And, above all, she could feel that all three bodies bore not a stitch of clothing.

"It... It wasn't a dream?" She whispered hopefully, afraid that if she spoke any louder she'd shatter the illusion around her.

"Nope, it wasn't a dream," she heard whispered from behind her, before one of the pair of arms around her squeezed her a little tighter. "You're stuck with us now Nam."

She smiled brilliantly. "I could think of worse fates." Turning her head slightly towards the girl behind her, she asked, "How long have you been awake Kai?"

Kairi shifted, sitting up slightly to lean over her, so she could look the blonde girl in the face. "Just long enough to come to the same conclusion you did, before you woke up. That all this wasn't a dream. That I really have you and Sora with me."

"Do you regret having to share Sora with me?" Namine was terrified that her sister (did that word still describe them now that they were lovers too?) would say 'yes' to that.

Kairi's response was to lean down and press her lips against Namine's pale cheek, before replying, "No. You deserve him as much as I do, and I know his heart is big enough to love both of us. Besides," she grinned slightly, "Watching him make love to someone who looks almost exactly like me is..." She blushed deeply, which was answer enough, really.

Despite the blush she felt staining her own cheeks, Namine couldn't keep the grin off her face; damnit, why did Sora have to be right about how cute Kairi, and by extension herself, looked blushing? "Well Kai," the blonde girl remarked slyly, "Some hair dye and a little sun, and I could look **exactly** like you. Would you like that?"

Her blush worsening, Kairi was fortunately spared having to answer when the two girls heard Sora start to stir beside them. Leaning further over her sister, and balancing precariously so as to not crush her, and stretched down to press her lips to Sora's. When she leaned back again, Namine took the hint and copied her, before the two girls said together, "Morning Sora!"

A smile on his face, the youth replied, "I could get used to waking up like this."

Smiling back, Namine commented, "I think you're gonna have to, because-"

"We're not letting you go again," Kairi finished, before the two girls all but tackled him; while the sleeping bag would've been big enough for two, it was too small for three, so they'd undone it and just used it like a futon, to keep them off the cold ground, so there was nothing to get in the way of a tackle-hug.

"I love you both too," Sora replied, equal parts laughter and joy in his voice, as he wrapped one arm around each of them. After a few quiet minutes of just laying together, holding each other, and exchanging sweet, mostly-chaste kisses, he asked, "So, what would my ladies like to do today then?"

"I guess shopping's out of the question because we're laying low, huh?" Kairi supplied, before thinking a bit and adding, "Oh! I know! You can teach me how to fight properly. I mean, I've had a keyblade for three months now, and I still don't know how to use it all that well; I didn't practice for hours at a time like you and Riku did, so I've had to just try and copy what I'd remembered you guys doing."

"You want me to teach you to fight?" Sora couldn't help but feel a little shock that, of anything she could ask for, she chose that.

"I just... I want to help," she replied shyly. "I don't want to be the damsel in distress all the time."

Smiling, Sora just kissed her softly on the cheek. "Don't worry Kai. I'll teach you everything I know." Turning to the blonde girl on his other side, he added, "What about you Nami?"

It was Namine's turn to look embarrassed. "I can't fight," she muttered sadly. "The only power I've ever had was messing with your memory. Larxene used to make fun of me all the time, saying I wasn't a real Nobody because I didn't have any 'real' powers."

"Aww, Nam," Kairi shifted away from Sora to wrap her sister in a hug, ignoring the fact both wore not a stitch of clothing, "I'm sure you've got a lot more power than you know. Besides, you're not a Nobody any more; you're my sister! That definitely makes you a Somebody."

Tearing up slightly, Namine twisted around in Kairi's grip to hug her back, whispering, "Thank you."

Sliding over, Sora hugged the girl from behind, the three lapsing into a quiet, comfortable silence. One broken by a sudden flash of light, leaving Sora holding Kairi alone. The two stared at one another in confusion for a few seconds, before Kairi's face twisted into a mask of anger and hurt. "What the hell happened Sora?" He wasn't sure whether that was coming from Kairi or Namine, but both were equally likely. "Was all this just some sort of one night only deal? Because if so-"

"Whoa, calm down," Sora pleaded. "You know I'm not like that. You _saw_ her get a whole heart; Namine is as separate from you as I am now. I don't know what happened. What was the last thing she was thinking of before this happened?"

Still in a bit of a huff, Kairi did do as he asked, closing her eyes to converse properly with Namine, before replying slowly, "She says... something about how complete she felt with us. That she felt like she was still part of me, then, this happened."

Sora nodded, as though he'd gotten the answer he was looking for. "Okay, Namine, I want you to imagine yourself as separate from Kairi. Kai, you might wanna do the same, just to make sure."

The girl gave him a quizzical look, but nodded, and within seconds, there was another flash of light, and he was holding two girls again. Blinking once, Kairi asked, "Okay, what the hell happened?"

"Nearest guess?" Sora half shrugged, daring not to release either of them, "There's some kind of link between you still. When Namine imagined herself as part of you, she _became_ part of you again. I have no idea why though. I think it's something like my Drive forms, except you stay mostly the same. We'd probably need to experiment a bit to work out exactly what's happening."

"So, I'm not gonna disappear again?" Namine asked a touch fearfully.

"No," he replied softly. "Not unless you want to." Abruptly, his stomach decided to ruin the sombre mood, announcing to the world that it was past time he had breakfast. Blushing a bit at the look the girls gave him, he grinned and asked, "So, uh, should we get dressed before we eat?"

o-o-o

Striding down the halls of the Castle That Never Was, Xurik pointedly ignored the legions of Heartless around him, or the ever-increasing number of Nobodies that were answering his call; he knew if he were ever going to truly destroy Sora, he would need disposable minions. He was, however, loathe to use too many Nobodies at least at first, because that would give away the punch line to the great joke he had planned.

Smiling coldly as he left his musing, he noticed his wandering had taken him to the area he instinctively knew was known as the Proof of Existence; how he knew, he wasn't sure, but he'd narrowed it down to either something in the castle's Nobody-like state, or the fact he himself was a Nobody. Or both, of course. Casting his eyes over the tombstone-like markers, one for every member of the Organization bar Xemnas himself, he found his eyes focusing more on those for Saix, Axel, Luxord, Xigbar, Xaldin, Demyx, and Roxas, though this last he glared balefully at.

They, and Xemnas, had somehow managed to mould Nobodies into forms reminiscent of their own powers; if the others in the Organization had done that, either their flocks had already been remoulded, or destroyed, because he had yet to find any Nobodies bar the Dusks and Creepers that didn't fit into the 'jobs' of Berserker, Assassin, Gambler, Sniper, Dragoon, Dancer, Sorcerer, or Samurai. In fact, he hadn't been able to find any Samurai either, so either they had all been destroyed, or... Xurik didn't want to continue that last train of thought.

Thus far, all attempts at creating his own breed of Nobody had failed, though he _had_ managed to get every type bar the missing Samurai to obey his commands, and inheriting the domain of the Organization was a nice consolation prize. That said... Glaring hate towards Roxas' marker once more, Xurik was forced to add one item to the list of things Sora had stolen from him that were his by right: the Samurai Nobodies.

Xurik remembered, about three years ago now, back when he was still a fourteen-year-old Riku, about having a strange dream, about a world where the ground was stained glass, and everything else was endless darkness. He remembered choosing, of three weapons, the sword, and giving up the shield, satisfied even now in his belief that strength was most important, beyond even his own safety. He remembered a series of trials, including fighting what he now knew were Shadow Heartless, before finally fighting a giant Heartless with a hole in it's chest. Fighting, and losing.

The voice that had guided him through the trials thus far had then abandoned him, telling him that he had failed, that he was not worthy, though worthy of what he had not discovered until about a year later. A year later darkness came to Destiny Islands, and Sora got the keyblade of the Realm of Light; the keyblade that had tested Riku a year earlier, and had chosen Sora instead. When Riku'd learnt that the keyblade had originally been meant to be his, he had done everything he could to take what was his by right, stripping Sora of the weapon in Hollow Bastion, only for Sora to take it back from him. To steal what was his by right from him again. Just like he'd done with Kairi.

He and Sora had fought over Kairi ever since she had come to Destiny Islands, though only Riku knew this; Sora probably still believed it was just friendly rivalry. He had beaten Sora so many times, to prove to Kairi that he and he alone could protect her, but Sora's whinging and complaining had always made Kairi check up on him first, to make sure he was okay, before congratulating Riku on his win. Every time she went to Sora first it just increased Riku's desire to win her attention, so much so that he had even faked losing once, to get her to tend _his_ wounds before Sora's, but still she'd gone to Sora first. And ever since that first loss, Riku had found it harder and harder to actually win.

When the darkness came to Destiny Islands, Riku saw how strong it was, and, more importantly, how unlike Sora it was, and knew he had to make it his. He accepted the darkness willingly, and before long he found himself in Maleficent's company. She taught him how to use his new powers, and he, in turn, became her lieutenant, doing her dirty work for her. It was she who showed him that Sora had turned his back on him, and more importantly, on Kairi, so he knew it was up to him to save her, and that doing so would win her as his once and for all. Maleficent had assured him that, if he helped her, she would help him save Kairi, and make her his, but when push came to shove, the witch had not delivered; this was why he didn't trust her now, though she could still make a useful pawn.

When Maleficent had failed him, he turned to the dark voice that had plagued him from before the fall of the islands, a voice he had come to know as Ansem. The voice had told him that it alone knew how to save Kairi, had helped him to regain his keyblade when Maleficent failed to help, but when he lost it again, it had told him that it could grant him the power he needed. He would have done anything, by that point, to rid himself of Sora's shadow, and to make Kairi his, so he had accepted. And not long later, he had ceased to exist as Riku, and began his existence as Xurik.

Sora, or rather his hatred for him, had robbed him of his very heart. Rather than making him realise his own wrongdoings, though, it had just cemented in his mind how badly Sora needed to be destroyed, once and for all; after all, if he could drive his best friend to losing his heart, he could and almost certainly would do worse to Kairi. In time, without the desire his heart had for Kairi, however, his goal had warped from winning her for himself, to merely taking her away from Sora; as he stood now, he didn't particularly want her for himself, but would take her if it meant Sora lost her.

Scowling as he heard Maleficent approach, he reached up to pull the hood of his Organization XIII cloak over his head; he had actually received it from Xemnas himself, not long after he had been 'born', along with his name. He could've been a member of the Organization, except for two facts: first, Xemnas was Ansem, and he'd not trust him again; second, Xemnas had already recruited Roxas, and Xurik refused to have anything to do with the Nobody who had once been Sora. He had taken a bit of satisfaction in the fact that Sora too had fallen to darkness, until he'd learnt that not only had Sora been able to return to the light, it had been **Kairi** that had brought him back; that fact had been what had finally killed any desire of his to have her for himself.

"Ah, there you are," he heard Maleficent comment, turning his head to find her looking where he himself had been: Roxas' red-glowing marker. The witch had told him earlier that, up until two days ago now, the marker had been blue, and she didn't like that she couldn't explain why it was now red when Roxas had been dead ever since the Organization had fallen over three months ago; he had to have been, or else they never would have been able to destroy Xemnas. "I thought you might like to know that Riku discovered that Sora is on Radiant Garden."

Xurik bared his teeth in the darkness his hood provided. Maleficent knew how much he hated being reminded that his heart had managed to return to human form, and that it, too, had chosen to side with Sora, but to him, that just proved that his heart was weak, and that he was better off without it. "Oh?" He replied back a lot more calmly than he felt, "Couldn't you find him yourself?"

This time it was Maleficent's turn to snarl. He knew that she hated being reminded of the fact she had not been able to scry on Sora for months, nor the fact that Kairi, too, had disappeared ever since Sora had encountered her; she seemed assured in her own abilities to break through whatever was blocking her, but he severely doubted she'd have much luck. Ignoring his barb, he heard her remark, "I was just curious about how you planned on defeating him where so many have failed before." That she herself was on that list she casually ignored.

"It's quite simple," Xurik replied, turning to have her. "I'm going to break his heart. Without that, he will be powerless." Clenching his fist, he added, "We Nobodies know best how to injure a heart. And I, I will start by having 'Riku' pay Sora a little visit, and bring a few... 'friends'." Without another word, he opened a Corridor of Darkness, and disappeared within.

It was time to begin phase one.

o-o-o

"Okay Kairi, you're gonna want to hold your keyblade with both hands to start with. It gives you more power for both your strikes and blocks. You attack a little slower, sure, but it gives you more accuracy." The girl nodded, shifting Oathkeeper into a two handed grip, and held it like she remembered seeing Sora holding his wooden sword back when he used to spar with Riku. "Now, since defence is more important than offence, I'm going to attack you, slowly at first, and I want you to try and block. The longer you're able to block, the faster I'll start to go, okay?"

Namine sat on a rock nearby, kicking her feet absently as she watched Sora begin to put Kairi through her paces. She still wished she could actually fight, if only because she, like Kairi, both wanted to help keep Sora safe, and not have to rely on him to protect her. Even if she did know how to fight - and she had to admit, watching Sora and Kairi work was starting to bring back memories that weren't hers - she didn't even have a weapon she could fight **with**.

Pushing the thought from her mind, Namine focused on watching the others, subconsciously smoothing her dress. It wasn't the white dress she'd been 'born' in that she wore, but rather, one of Kairi's dresses, similar in design and cut to the pink dress the girl fought in now, only a nice lavender instead, with a pale yellow singlet on underneath instead of the white Kairi wore. Plus, she wore actual shoes now, instead of sandals, for much the same reason as she'd changed her dress; her previous outfit was fine for wearing indoors, but wasn't really enough clothing for travelling around in, let alone fighting.

She rolled her eyes. It's not like she was going to be doing any fighting anyway...

Looking back at her... lovers? She noticed they'd moved on from blocks, and now Kairi was attacking Sora, slowly at first so Sora could guide her through proper forms. As much fun as it was watching the two people most important to her - and, truth be told, she was having a great time just existing and being able to actually feel, let alone having Sora and Kairi with her - she really wished she had her sketchbook. Drawing had been the one pleasure she'd had while imprisoned in Castle Oblivion.

"Ugh, let's take a break," Kairi muttered tiredly, slumping down on a nearby rock.

Sora chuckled, replying, "Alright Kai, you can rest a minute." Setting his Oblivion keyblade in the ground behind him, before leaning back against it like a stool, the keyblade master turned to the blonde girl and asked, "You sure you don't want to learn how to fight Nami? I mean, I've got a spare keyblade you can use."

Namine rolled her eyes again. "Sora, what use would it be learning how to fight with a keyblade if I don't have my own?"

Sora just grinned at her. "You sure about that?" With no warning, Sora went from relaxed slouch, to dashing towards Namine at high speed, Oblivion warping to his hands as he used his Quick Run ability to zip towards her and attacking with his keyblade. Letting out a shriek, Namine squeezed her eyes shut and raise her hands to block, before there was a flash of light, and the sound of metal against metal. Opening her eyes slowly, she found Oblivion stopped in front of her, resting against the Kingdom Key. With a start, she realised that the Kingdom Key in question was actually in **her** hand. And, she noticed after, there was a weight in her other hand as well; Kairi's keyblade, that she'd named Floral Fallal.

"Two?" Kairi's voice broke the silence. "How come she has two keyblades?"

"Simple, Kai," Sora replied, "She's part me, and part you. That's why she can use both of our keyblades." Turning back to Namine, his grin returning, Sora asked, "So, still don't want to learn how to fight?"

Her face twisting into a snarl, Namine exclaimed, "You jerk!" Leaping off the rock, Namine flung herself at Sora, lashing out with both keyblades. "You big stupid jerk! I can't believe you just attacked me like that!" Sora darted to one side, but Namine wasn't about to let him get away that easily. Holding the Kingdom Key set before her, on top of the back of her left hand, Namine darted forward, similar to Sora's Quick Run. The keyblade master grinned as he dashed out of the way, only for Namine to follow, still using that same technique; a technique he recognised.

Leaping high over her, Sora twisted through the air, leaping higher, and spinning to make sure he faced Namine. With a growl, Namine leapt into the air after him, hurling Floral Fallal at him as she closed the distance. Batting her keyblade away with Twilight Thorn, Sora brought Oblivion up to parry her first attack, as the irate girl launched into a series of powerful swings. After about half a dozen unsuccessful attacks, Sora locked his keyblades with hers and pushed her away, and in retaliation, she aimed the Kingdom Key at him, before firing off a bright red beam of light.

Raising a Reflectaga shield at the last minute, Sora waited until the two of them landed safely on the ground, and Namine didn't rush to attack him, before dropping it and remarking, "See? I knew you could fight."

The wind completely taken out of her sails, Namine gaped slightly, turning back to look at the awe on Kairi's face, before facing Sora again and asking, "How...?"

"You have my memories, Namine," Sora replied softly. "All of them. Including how I used to fight. I just watched you use Sonic Blade, Strike Raid, and Ragnarok, all abilities I learnt how to do while trying to find Kairi when I first got the keyblade." Smiling a little, he added, "Of course, you're going to have to learn how to adapt them to having a second keyblade, but..." He cut off suddenly, turning to face Kairi; he couldn't explain why, just that he knew she needed his attention. "What's wrong Kai?"

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong?" The girl replied quickly, facing away from both of them. Not believing her for a second, Sora came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her, but saying nothing. Sighing at the comfort the simple gesture brought, Kairi murmured, "It's just... You and Namine can already fight so well, and I can barely even protect myself. It's just... frustrating, I guess."

"I wouldn't say I really _know_ how to fight," Namine remarked sheepishly, having moved towards the girl and taking her hand, "It just... happened. I wasn't really aware I was doing _anything_ until after it was done."

An idea forming, Sora turned to Namine and asked, "Hey, Nami, you can give people new memories, right?"

Turning her head to face him, she shrugged slightly, "Well, I _could_, but I don't know whether I still _can_."

"Would it be possible to copy all the memories you have of how I fight to Kairi?"

Both girls blinked at that statement. "Um... I _might_ be able to." Seeing the hope begin to dawn in Kairi's eyes at the possibility, she grinned and said, "It's worth a try, isn't it? If I'm gonna give it my best shot, it'll probably work better if I go inside. Back in a flash." Without another word, Namine disappeared in a burst of yellow light, Kairi being surrounded briefly by a fine yellow mist as Namine re-entered her heart.

"Namine? What are you..." Kairi trailed off, her voice sounding sleepy as her body all but shut down. Supporting her weight as he gently lowered her to the ground, Sora remembered having to sleep himself in order for Namine to repair his memory; obviously, meddling with memories was easier when the mind in question was asleep.

Sora contented himself with stroking Kairi's hair, resting the girl's head in his lap, as he waited for Namine to finish her work. Smiling down at her, Sora took the time to properly study her, having never truly had the time to truly examine the differences between the cute girl he had last seen drifting away from him at the End of the World as Destiny Islands rebuilt around her, and the beautiful girl who he had found in the Castle That Never Was. A wry grin twisted Sora's face at the irony that he had found Kairi again in the Nobody equivalent of the Heartless world where he had last seen her.

All too soon for Sora's taste, considering how nice it felt to have Kairi resting on him, the girl shone with a pale yellow glow, which drifted off her to form Namine once more, a tired, though proud, smile on her face. "She should wake up shortly. I actually didn't need to gift her as many memories as I thought I might have to, but it should be enough to teach her how to fight with her keyblade, and, as an added bonus, it helped me understand it too. I couldn't teach her magic though, because I couldn't understand it myself."

"Don't worry Namine, I'll teach you both magic," Sora replied, wrapping one arm around behind her head, pulling her towards him as he leant over towards her, and whispering, "Thank you Namine. I'm proud of you," before pressing his lips to hers.

Namine felt her heart flutter as she kissed him back. Not only had she made Sora proud of her, she felt a lot closer to her sister, if such a thing were possible, now that they had shared in each other's memories; after all, she couldn't just give Kairi Sora's memories, she had to connect them in properly, which meant walking through a few of them with Kairi. Before she could reply, however, the redhead in his lap stirred, opening her eyes and murmuring, a grin on her face, "I had the strangest dream." Leaning back to face the two of them upside-down, mirth in her eyes, she pointed to them each in turn, adding the typical, "You were there, and you were there."

"How're you feeling Kai?" Namine asked her, "More confident in your ability to fight?"

Kairi reached up and grabbed her sister, dragging her down and shifting her own position to kiss the girl, before replying softly, "I feel fantastic. Thank you Nam."

Namine just blushed cutely. "My pleasure Kai."

Sora waited until the moment was over, a gentle, loving smile on his face, before he asked, "Are you two ready to continue? Because I want to find out exactly how much you've learnt, and, if there's time, start teaching the two of you some magic."

Kairi stuck her tongue out at him, jibbing amusedly, "Slave driver." Climbing to her feet, she turned to her sister and asked, "What do you think Nam? Reckon we can take him together?"

Namine, for her part, was eager to find out; now that she knew she was **not**, in fact, useless in a fight, she wanted to see just where she stood compared to the Keyblade Master. Jumping to her feet and summoning both keyblades, Namine grinned back and replied, "Only one way to find out."

Sora smirked, summoning a single keyblade as he stood up. "You're welcome to try."

"So smug," Kairi remarked mirthfully, "But for how long?" Without another word she rushed her opponent, excited to test out her new abilities. Laughing gleefully, Namine followed her sister into mock-battle against the boy - no, man - they both loved. She never would've imagined her life would ever turn out like this, but she wouldn't trade a moment of it for all the worlds. She was finally happy, and nothing could take that away from her.

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Author's Notes

Some people have had Kairi pre-trained how to fight, putting her almost on Sora's level, and some have had her unable to do much more than Sora when he first got his keyblade. I decided to take the middle path, though it meant having to use Namine's powers to do it.

Also, for those curious about Xurik's memories, keep in mind they're the memories of an angsty, jealous fifteen-year-old seen through the eyes of someone who can no longer truly feel emotion.

In any case, hopefully I'll have chapter seven out soon. Things are about to get interesting...


	8. Become Darkness Itself

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 07 - Become Darkness Itself

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

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_While you toiled away trying to find your dear friend, he quite simply replaced you with some new companions. Evidently, now he values them for more than he does you._

_There are seven maidens of the purest heart. We call them the princesses of heart._

_I know now I don't need the Keyblade. My friends are my power!_

_The heart that is strong and true shall win the Keyblade._

_Plunge deeper into the darkness, and your heart will grow even stronger._

_Open yourself to the darkness._

Xurik sneered to himself in disgust as he watched Sora interacting with two girls, from his hiding spot high on the blue stone cliff. While she had certainly grown from his last memory of her, the redhead with him was clearly Kairi, and considering how... 'friendly' the girl was with him, their relationship had clearly advanced further than he had expected, but that only helped him confirm in his own mind that he no longer wanted her for himself; even if he could still feel the emotions he remembered feeling for her, she was now tainted. Tilting his head to one side, Xurik frowned when he realised that, without a heart, he wouldn't truly be able to feel any satisfaction when he finally did kill Sora.

Oh well. He had the memory of satisfaction to go off, and that would be good enough.

A scowl crossed his face when his eyes went back to the second girl with Sora; some blonde girl he didn't recognize. He could see, even from this distance, that the blonde girl was just as... 'friendly', with Sora as Kairi was. Idly, he wondered why Kairi would put up with Sora being with another girl; from what he could see, either Sora had managed to brainwash Kairi into accepting the second girl, or he had managed to keep it from her.

Either way, the blonde girl was almost certainly equally as tainted and unsaveable as Kairi, and just one more thing he could take from Sora to break his heart.

Both girls, it seemed, had a keyblade, however, he knew that, weapon or no, Kairi could not fight; while he and Sora had fought almost constantly when they were growing up, Kairi was never more than a cheerleader and referee. The blonde was an unknown quantity, but judging by the way she held her weapon, she knew no more than Kairi did; the two were holding their keyblades identically. Sora had the girls shooting fireballs at a series of targets he'd set up, and while Kairi seemed to have stronger magic than the blonde, both were woefully weak.

Xurik shook his head. It was time to test just how far Sora was prepared to go to save these girls. And thin out Maleficent's Heartless corps in the process.

o-o-o

"Okay girls, that should be enough for now. Let's take a break," Sora remarked in his usual cheerful manor. Sitting down on one of the nearby rock ledges, Sora couldn't keep the smile from his face as he watched the girls work. Kairi, it seemed, had quite a knack for magic, and considerably more skill than he did when he first learnt the Fire spell; enough so that he felt she might even be ready to learn the more complex Cure today. Namine, however, seemed weaker in magic than even he had been back then, which just cemented in his mind that she had abilities of her own that she didn't know about; after all, the Organization all were very focused in what they could and couldn't do, which seemed to be something of a trait with Nobodies, former or otherwise.

A tired, though satisfied, smile on her face, Kairi flopped down beside him, Oathkeeper dangling loosely from her right hand as she rested her head on his shoulder. Giggling slightly, she commented, "That was fun. When are you going to teach us more?"

"After you've had a chance to rest," Sora replied, wrapping one arm around the girl's shoulders. "Using magic takes a lot out of you, especially when you haven't done it before. Don't worry, you'll know everything I do soon enough. Most magic isn't any harder to do that Fire, it's all about envisioning the element you want. The hardest spells I know to learn are Reflect, Gravity, Magnet, and maybe Cure."

"If they're harder to learn than this was, then I'm never going to pick them up," Namine drawled out, too tired to really be as annoyed about that as she felt, as she dropped down against Sora's other shoulder, the three of them just enjoying the moment of peace together.

"Don't fret about it Nami." Kissing her cheek, the Keyblade Master explained, putting his other arm around her, "Not everyone can do magic. The fact you've done as well as you have for a first timer just shows me we haven't discovered your true powers yet. We know how, however, that whatever your powers are, they _can_ be used for combat, or else you wouldn't have been able to learn Fire at all." Still sensing some doubt from the blonde girl, he added, "Don't judge your progress against Kairi's. She's actually better at magic than I was."

Even Kairi could almost feel Namine relax at those words, even as the redhead felt her own cheeks heat up. Kissing Sora's cheek, she whispered, "You really mean that?"

Sora nodded, giving his red-haired goddess a kiss before replying, "You'll be slinging spells stronger than I can before too long." Kissing Namine in turn, he added, "Both of you have so much untapped potential just waiting to come out, and even as you are, I would be proud to have you fighting by my si-" He trailed off suddenly, his head snapping forward as he sniffed the air. "Something's wrong," he whispered.

"What is it?" Namine asked, a touch of fear in her voice.

Withdrawing his arms and shooting to his feet, he threw his hands out to either side, summoning Oblivion and Twilight Thorn. "Heartless."

The two girls sprang to their feet beside each other, just behind him, and as if the word itself summoned them, a massive pool of darkness began to form on the ground all around them, as far as the eye could see. The sea of darkness began to flow into smaller pools, each of which began to rise out of the ground, forming the antennae'd head Sora recognized of the Neoshadow Heartless. Hundreds, maybe even over a thousand, a sea of black head and glowing yellow eyes in every direction.

Sniffing the air again, and wrinkling his nose at the stench of darkness, Sora could almost smell the fear rolling off the two girls. Turning back to them and giving his usual rogue smile, full of boyish charm and cheer, he remarked, "Is this all of them? I'll barely have time to get warmed up." The girls grinned back at him, feeling reassured by his words, but the scent of fear was still there. Letting out a sharp whistle, Sora nodded as a trio of Samurai appeared around each girl, adding, "Stay with the Samurai. They'll keep you safe."

Glancing at each other, the two girls nodded, Kairi speaking for the both of them. "We will Sora. You just stay safe too, and come back to us."

Sora just grinned again. "Don't worry about me Kai. I've killed this many at once before, and I can do it again." That said, Sora used a combination of Quick Run, High Jump, and Aerial Dodge to leap into the middle of then. The battle was on.

o-o-o

Riku felt a wave of dread take over him as he stared up at the massive wooden doors, a Dark Corridor closing behind him. 'I was really hoping to avoid this...' King Mickey had not been pleased when he had returned from Radiant Garden without even catching a glimpse of Sora or Kairi, especially considering that Vincent character had all but told him flat out that they were on world. Worse, the king had forbade him from returning to Radiant Garden until they had the other six Princesses of Heart, despite Riku's arguments about Vincent being able to help him with his darkness; he had _expressly_ forbade him from having any dealings with 'a creature of such darkness' as Vincent.

Riku had collected four of the Princesses for King Mickey already: Aurora, Snow White, Cinderella, and Alice; the four Princesses he personally had never had anything to do with. They had all been remarkably easy, if only because the first three trusted Disney Castle, and Alice was young and naive enough to trust anyone who announced himself as a friend of Sora. Now, however, he was down to the last two on his list: Jasmine, who he personally had snatched, and who was good friends with Genie, and Belle, who lived with the Beast, who had been there in Hollow Bastion when Riku truly gave in to the darkness.

All told, Riku thought collecting Belle first would hurt less. The worst the Beast could do was beat him up.

Steeling his nerve, Riku pushed open one of the heavy doors, his footfalls echoing through the entry hall as he strode purposefully towards the stairs; he knew it would only be a matter of time before one of the mansion's occupants found him, and if it wasn't the Beast, they would surely fetch him soon enough. Rather than trying to search through the house for Belle, which he knew would only anger the Beast, Riku sat down on one of the podiums beside the staircase, waiting for them to find him.

Sure enough, within moments a roar echoed through the mansion, followed moments later by the Beast himself. Landing heavily on the marble floor, the Beast pointed one clawed hand at Riku and bellowed, "You! What are you doing here?"

Holding his hands up passively, Riku replied, "I know you're not going to believe me, but Sora and I are actually friends. What you saw last year, that was me in a bad place, and I'm trying to make amends for that. I'm currently working for King Mickey of Disney Castle, and I need to see Belle." When the Beast started growling he added hurriedly, "Supervised. You can be there the whole time to make sure I don't do anything. I just need to talk to her."

The Beast growled at him for a while longer, before spitting out, "If she wants to see you, I will let you. If not, you are to leave immediately." So decided, the Beast galloped off to find Belle, and Riku breathed a sigh of relief; the Beast hadn't ripped his head off, and assuming he told Belle the entire message, as soon as she heard 'Disney Castle' she would speak to him; the Princesses of Heart were among the few to actually know of the world of Light.

Sure enough, within moments Belle and the Beast returned together, but just as Riku opened his mouth to speak, Belle cut him off with, "So, you claim to be working for Disney Castle now? Well, I want to hear you say it myself." Turning to her furry companion, she added, "The Beast isn't as adept as hearing lies as I am. Now, Disney Castle would never announce itself anywhere, let alone on this world, for fear of meddling, unless the need was great. I take it this has to do with my status as a Princess of Heart?"

Riku nodded, deciding the smartest choice would be to meet her demand before answering any of her other questions. "Correct. I have been working for King Mickey of Disney Castle ever since he rescued me from the Realm of Darkness a year ago, after the... unpleasantness that occurred in Hollow Bastion. I make no excuses for my actions; though I do regret all of them, it was my own fault I was not strong enough to resist Maleficent and Ansem when they tempted me towards darkness."

He waited for Belle to nod in satisfaction for his words before continuing, "As to why I'm here, the situation is... complicated, but yes, it is about you being one of the seven Princesses." He paused for a moment, dredging up the speech King Mickey had prepared for the Princesses. "A new Darkness has arisen, one that threatens all worlds, and it has brought the Heartless back with it. We don't know much about it, but one thing we do know for certain is..." He took a deep breath, before forcing out, "...that Sora has already fallen to this Darkness."

Belle gasped in fright and clung to the Beast, and even the Beast's eyes opened in shock. It was a point that Riku had fought with Mickey about, but the mouse king had been adamant; Sora had not only willingly given in to the Darkness, he, unlike Riku, was unrepentant about it. As much as Riku believed Sora was still Sora, and was on their side, he couldn't fight that last point. Riku knew, now more than ever, that Sora would do **anything** for Kairi, even if it meant spending the rest of his life in Darkness.

Putting his own feelings to one side and focusing on the task at hand, he continued, "We cannot say where his allegiances lie now, but King Mickey of Disney Castle has officially recorded the Keyblade Master as lost to us, until it can be proven otherwise. We believe this new Darkness will be going for Kingdom Hearts, which is why a summons has been placed for all Princesses of Heart to head to Disney Castle for their own safety, and to assist in fighting back this Darkness if the need should arise."

Swallowing, Belle nodded slowly, and asked carefully, "Who has answered the summons so far?"

"Alice, Aurora, Cinderella, and Snow White are already under the protection of Disney Castle," Riku intoned, fighting to keep his own emotions out of it.

Belle just nodded, remarking, "So there's just Jasmine and Kairi left." Her eyes widened as she realised something, blurting out, "Oh Light, Kairi! How is she taking the news of Sora?"

Riku tried to hide a wince; thus far, everyone but Alice had asked this question, and the others had only known Sora in passing. They all knew how much Sora and Kairi cared for one another though, even if getting the two to actually admit it had been all but impossible, and Belle, unlike the others save Jasmine, actually knew Sora as well as anyone he'd helped in the past, so he had to be more delicate. "Kairi..." He sighed, taking another deep breath, before forcing the words out, "We have been unable to find Kairi. Last we saw of her was on Destiny Islands, when..." He sighed again. "When Sora resurfaced."

Her eyes widened further. "So Kairi is..."

He nodded. "At this point, we don't know for certain whether she went with him willingly or not, but there can be no doubt..." 'I'm sorry Sora...' "Princess Kairi is currently with the fallen Keyblade Master." He only half heard Belle informing him of her support, or her reassuring the Beast she would be safe. All he could do was send up a silent apology to his best friend, and pray for his forgiveness.

o-o-o

Kairi has to admit, as she stabbed the Oathkeeper deep into the chest of a Neoshadow, that she could see why Sora and Riku had liked fighting so much when they were younger, and why Sora (and possibly Riku, she hadn't asked) still did now. The feel of the adrenaline pumping through her veins, her heart racing, blood pumping, sweat dripping down her back, knowing that any mistake could lead to pain or worse, it was all so exhilarating! She rarely felt more alive; in fact, she could name only one thing that made her feel more alive, and it was not the sort of thought to let yourself get distracted with in the middle of a life-or-death battle.

She had fought defensively at first, using Guard and Counter whenever a Neoshadow attacked her, and timing a few careful applications of Fire, both as a fireball, and a fire shield; envisioning using Fire in different ways was a little harder than she'd thought, but she was learning. A few minutes into the fight, however, had strengthened her nerve enough to properly go on the offensive, choosing to stick to more traditional attacks, and save her energy for any magic she might need to cast.

Namine, however, had been using the special abilities she learnt from Sora's memories like that were going out of style. A massive grin on her face, the blonde girl has been using Sonic Blade to carve a path through the mass of Heartless, and when they instinctively started to shy away from her, she switched instead to using Strike Raid, hurling her keyblade further through the sea of darkness. Laughing gleefully as she destroyed the Neoshadows, leaving the Samurai forced to try and catch up to her, Namine seemed to have finally found something she was good at; she could use Sora's special abilities a lot more often than he ever could, and doing so took a lot less out of her than she remembered it costing him.

Kairi had only seen Sora once since the battle had begun, a massive grin splitting his features as he swung around a pair of massive, thick keyblades, one red, one grey; Guardian Soul and Fenrir, if she remembered right. His clothes had been red, and he'd had red lightning dancing around his hands, so if her memory served he was using his Valour Form to destroy the Neoshadows easier. With a worried frown, Kairi couldn't help the thought that came unbidden to her mind. 'This is too easy.' The Neoshadows were barely putting up a fight, and Kairi knew she wasn't all that good at fighting, so judging by how Sora had told her the more powerful Heartless fought, she should've at least been hurt by now.

Suddenly, she realised what was wrong with the picture: the dark shadowy mist that was expelled whenever a Neoshadow was destroyed wasn't dispelling. Her eyes widened slightly; worse, it was actually _collecting_ in certain areas, forming little balls of darkness hovering just out of the normal line of sight; a lot of which were dangerously near her sister. "Namine!" She cried fearfully, pointing to the balls of darkness. "Watch out!"

Unfortunately, by the time Kairi had noticed, it was too late to change the situation. The ball of darkness closest to the blonde girl expanded rapidly with violent force, revealing itself to be a large black-and-blue ball about the size of her torso, with three blue-and-pink tendrils, one directly below, and one in places of ears, along with two yellow eyes and two rows of jagged black teeth for a mouth. The force of its expansion rocked Namine back into the range of another, which sent her into another, and again, until Namine didn't even know which way she was facing. And still more appeared.

"Namine!" Kairi cried out, running towards the girl at high speed, but knowing she wouldn't be able to get there before her sister got severely banged up. Without even thinking about what she was doing, the Princess cast a spell, hoping desperately to keep Namine safe, and a hexagonal barrier of light formed around her, moments before another of those balls of shadow expanded, battering futilely against the shield. Shocked, Kairi released what she was holding, and as the barrier shattered, a concussive shockwave rocked out from around its edge, scattering the darkness. Wasting no time, Kairi rushed forwards to see to her sister.

She'd only just arrived when she spotted Sora cutting a path through the Heartless towards them, the Samurai they had managed to lose forming a V-formation behind him. As the Samurai formed a defensive position around them, Sora dropped back into his normal form, asking worriedly, "Namine, Kairi, are you two okay?"

"I'm okay Sora," Kairi replied, "But Namine got really knocked around."

"I'll be okay," Namine remarked, panting slightly as she sat down heavily, but she didn't protest when Sora crouched down and gently grabbed her head, green tendrils of energy extending from his hands as he cast Curaga.

"What are these things anyway Sora?" Kairi asked, breathing a sigh of relief as she watched Namine get visibly better.

"Darkballs," Sora replied gravely. "I haven't seen these things since we defeated Ansem and sealed the doorway between the Realms of Light and Darkness. I've never heard of Darkballs forming naturally in this Realm, not without a great darkness present. An army of Neoshadows is one thing, but this... Something's wrong. This shouldn't be possible." Snapping his fingers, he summoned another half dozen Samurai, stating seriously, "I want you two to stay in this ring, and only fight the Heartless if they get through. The Samurai can talk to me, regardless of distance, so they can keep me informed of the situation here, and I won't be able to fight to my fullest if I don't know both of you are safe."

The two girls nodded quickly; it wasn't often they heard Sora that worried about anything. "Just... be careful Sora," Kairi pleaded, "There's something... unnatural about this darkness." Sora nodded, kissing each girl in turn, before leaping over the Samurai and back into the fray.

o-o-o

Had he a heart, Xurik was quite confident that he'd be incredibly annoyed by this point. The first annoyance had been the absolute proof that Sora had command over the Samurai Nobodies, something Xiruk believed was his by right. The second annoyance was his gross underestimation of Kairi and the blonde girl, who he had overheard called 'Namine', and their respective fighting skills; Kairi, and especially Namine, fought exactly like he remembered Sora fighting. The final, and most annoying of the annoyances, was Sora himself. Not only had the so-called 'Keyblade Master' acquired a **second** Keyblade, he had a completely new fighting style, one Xurik didn't yet know how to counter.

The cold, logical part of his mind pointed out that it was his own fault he didn't know any of these facts. He had ignored Sora for over a year after his creation, training to fight his foe, gathering his strength, and making plans to destroy Sora, but in that time, Sora had changed, and he was forced to catch up or watch everything he had worked so hard for crumble away like a kicked sand castle. A slight frown on his face, Xurik ruminated on the fact that, at least by sending a seemingly endless wave of Heartless at Sora, he would either injure his nemesis enough for any of the changes not to matter, or have enough time to observe the changes enough to adapt.

Still, if nothing else, Xurik could mark this attack down as a success. He had ascertained the strengths of Kairi, Namine, and to a degree Sora, and he had put Hades' pledge to the test. A callous grin came to his face as he thought of that. From what Maleficent had told him, Hades had used his Keyblade of Tormented Souls to enhance the darkness in the mass of Shadows that had been reborn when Ansem the Wise blew a hole in Kingdom Hearts, turning them all into Neoshadows. Additionally, this new Darkness placed in each and every one of them a king of... enchantment, was the word Maleficent used to describe it.

Hades had said that the Darkness in the upgraded Heartless, or those created using his Keyblade, did not dissipate when the Heartless was slain; the heart itself would still be freed if slain by a Keyblade, but the Darkness that had surrounded the heart would remain. When enough of the scattered Darkness collected together, the next freed heart would instantly be consumed by darkness again, reforming as a Heartless; though not a Shadow or Neoshadow. No, the new Heartless would be the next stage: a Darkball [1]. And, Hades claimed, if enough Darkballs were slain, the most powerful Pureblood Heartless shy of the Darkside itself would be reborn.

Smirking slightly as he watched the battle going on down below, Xurik noted that it would only be a matter of time before this more powerful Heartless appeared, and he wasn't going to miss the look on Sora's face when it did.

o-o-o

Sora winced as he felt his wounds seal up, as the Curaga spell healed his injuries. The Neoshadows had been getting more aggressive ever since he had left the girls behind the protection of the Samurai, and the Darkballs had been popping up more frequently; the latter weren't particularly all that aggressive, but their concussive expansion was really disorienting, especially when you had to dodge an army of sharp claws. He'd actually given up using his magic to attack with, saving it instead for Reflect and the occasional Curaga, and even then only when absolutely necessary. Even so, he was still tiring.

On instinct, Sora hurled Twilight Thorn behind him, the black-and-white blade whirling through the air like a steel raptor, cleaving through no less than a dozen Neoshadows that had been sneaking up on him. Plunging Oblivion into the centre mass of a Darkball, and before the Heartless could disintegrate, used it like a club to batter away a few more Neoshadows, before Twilight Thorn returned to his hand. He'd lost count of exactly how many Heartless he'd slain so far, but it had to have been at least five-hundred by now, if not nearing the thousand mark, and it didn't feel like there were any less than when he'd started; his Dark Sense was off the scale.

He felt a sudden warning in his head, a darkness he felt he should have remembered, though had never felt before. He didn't know what it was, and he couldn't see anything that would give off such a massive level of darkness, but there was one thing he knew: Kairi and Namine were in trouble. Gritting his teeth and clenching his keyblades tighter, Sora took off running, carving a path through the Heartless that tried to bring him down.

They knew. The Heartless knew his girls were in danger, and were doing everything in their power to stop him from getting there in time. 'NO!' Sora's mind roared, as his body frantically tried to force his way through the sea of dark figures. He needed to get there, he needed to save them! He needed to be faster. Remembering the teaching Merlin gave him long ago, Sora envisioned the effect he wanted, and using every ounce of magical energy he could spare, he channelled.

It was like he had been fired out of a cannon. He went from possibly his fastest running speed, to being able to outpace a Chocobo, and he didn't even have time to actually attack the Heartless impeding him any longer; he just held his keyblades at an angle in front of him like a ram prow, and forced them aside as he barged through at high speed. As he drew nearer, he gave the Samurai hurried instructions to kill everything that might possibly threaten the girls, but despite the affirmatives he got back, the Samurai couldn't find anything bar the Neoshadows and Darkballs they had been fighting back already.

Punching straight through a stray Neoshadow, Sora entered the clearing the expanding ring of Samurai had carved, and right away, he could see what the danger he had senses was. The danger wasn't _outside_ the ring of Samurai; it had managed to sneak inside. Amidst the dark fog left behind by the army of Heartless, a ring of dark smoke was encircling the girls. A ring that was beginning to spin around. "No!" Sora exclaimed, racing towards the girls at high speed.

Kairi and Namine, fearfully watching the dark cloud they had just realised was a threat, had just enough time to notice that the ring of smoke was contracting rapidly, when they were bodily tackled out of the way by Sora. A cry of pain was wrenched from Sora's throat as the mass of darkness constricted around his waist, almost breaking him in half, before dispersing. "Sora!" The sisters cried together fearfully, rushing over to him, catching him before he could fall face-first, carefully lowering him to his feet.

"Are you okay Sora?" Namine asked hurriedly, pre-empting Kairi by half a heartbeat.

Coughing painfully as he gasped in air, he jerked a nod. "I'll be fine," he rasped out, "I'm just too tired to cast Cure. New spell... took a lot out of me."

"What... What was that?" Kairi asked, looking around fearfully in case it returned, and while she didn't see the dark cloud, she did see something that was quite possibly worse; a Heartless she didn't recognise. It was bipedal, with a massively muscular chest and thick arms, and feet that ended in clawed toes. On its heels were red-and-blue flames, on its elbows black-and-white angel wings, and short demon wings coming from its shoulders and lower back. From it's forehead came a pair of curved horns, that formed a pair of hearts right above its head. A curved blade tipped the tail trailing from it's back, and in it's right hand it carried a massive sword, with a blue-segmented blade, and a golden handle.

And, she noticed, there were at least a dozen of them, that very promptly ripped the Samurai to shreds.

"Invisibles." The breathy whisper that left Sora's throat sent a shiver of fear down both girls' spines; Sora was afraid. None the less, despite his injury, Sora forced himself to his feet, one hand still resting over his stomach as he summoned Oblivion into the other, ready to die if it meant keeping Kairi and Namine safe. However, before even one of the Invisibles could attack, a massive blade erupted through the stomach of the one directly in front of them, one that quickly sliced upwards, cutting the Heartless neatly in two, and revealing the dark-clad, blonde spiky-haired form of one Cloud Strife in all his glory.

"Thought you could use a hand," Cloud remarked, striding up casually despite the Heartless threat all around them

"You sit the rest of this out Sora." Tifa's voice came from behind the man, before the dark-haired woman herself strode into view. "It's high time **we** protected **you** for a change."

A joyous laugh escaped the Keyblade Master as he tried to climb to his feet, but Kairi and Namine dragged him back down with a teasingly admonishing, "You heard Tifa. Sit. You don't need to be the big invincible Master of the Keyblade now," from the redhead.

A grin on her face, Tifa gave one questioning look at Namine, before glancing over at Cloud, who nodded. Returning the nod, the two warriors fell into their respective fighting stances on either side of the keyblade-wielding trio, determination etched onto their faces. They were not going to let the Heartless return to this world, especially not when they threatened their Princess and her Knight. They had destroyed Maleficent's army of Heartless once, and they could do it again.

Blue-purple energy crackling up the length of his sword, burning away the bandages wrapped around it, Cloud glared into the sea of beady yellow eyes and roared, "Who's first?!"

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Author's Notes

[1] - According to the Kingdom Hearts wiki I get a lot of my information from, technically the Pureblood Heartless that's a step up from the Neoshadow is called a Gigant Shadow, which is basically a normal Shadow Heartless, only a lot larger, and the Darkball is a step above them. However, Gigant Shadows only appear in Final Mix, and even then, only in the Bizarre Room of Wonderland, so I'm choosing to write them off as normal-sized Shadows fighting a shrunk Sora, if only so I don't have to include them in my story.

On suggestion from my beta reader, I've dropped the rating for this story from M to T so it can receive more attention. I'll be honest, I only had it as M rating as a knee-jerk protective instinct, as I am a horrible judge of what fits under T rating. If I'm wrong, please, let me know as soon as possible so I can bump it up again; I'd rather my story be M rating and be read only by those mature enough to handle an M rating than have it at T and get into trouble for it.


	9. The HBRC

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 08 - The Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

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_Those creatures that attacked you are after the Keyblade. But it's your heart they really want_

_They'll come at you out of nowhere... And they'll keep on coming at you, as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade._

_No matter where we are, our hearts will bring us together again_

_Once I get rid of you, the darkness will go away_

_He just needs someone to surround him with light. The darkness will be there-- but in a place you can't reach_

His friend's faces and voices raced through his mind as Sora felt the relief wash over him. From the moment this battle had begun, his biggest worry was not his own safety, but the safety of the women he loved. He'd been confident, at first, in his own power, and in his ability to keep them safe, but as the battle wore on, and stronger enemies appeared, that confidence had began to erode. By the time the Invisibles revealed themselves, Sora was convinced that he would have to die to protect them, and even if he did, there was no guarantee he would succeed.

And then, like the proverbial light in the darkness, Cloud and Tifa had arrived to help him. His mind knew, deep inside, that even with both of them fighting beside him, there was still a good chance they would all die, but his hope had been restored. In his hour of need, the friends he had made on this world had come to his aid. Sora knew how true it was what he had told Riku long ago, that his friends were his power; very rarely did Sora ever not have an ally or two at his side.

The last time he had gone anywhere alone, Hades caught him, and look where _that_ lead.

He knew, in his heart of hearts, he didn't yet have enough confidence in Kairi and Namine as he had in Donald and Goofy to watch his back; while not trying to be mean to them, they were too inexperienced. With time, they would become formidable fighters of their own, but until then, he knew it was up to him to protect them. And he wasn't sure how much of that he could do on his own. 'But then,' he thought to himself, 'I'm never truly alone am I? Not anymore. Even when there's no one else around, the friends I've made are with me, in spirit.'

His internal monologue was rudely broken when he heard Cloud shout, "Blade Beam!" With a slash of his sword, the blue-purple energy collected within was released in the form of a curved bar of energy, which streaked at high speed towards one of the Invisibles. The Heartless didn't even have time to raise it's sword to block before being cut clean in half, the beam breaking up into four smaller beams as it passed through the Invisibles back; each smaller beam, in turn, slew a Neoshadow.

On the other side of the three exhausted teens, Tifa was wading through the ocean of darkness, her powerful arms and legs tearing through shadowy bodies like paper, and any Heartless that took it's attention away from her for even a second never had time to regret it. Realising how much of a threat the dark-haired woman was, the Neoshadows attempted to rush her; which, the grin on her face betrayed, was exactly what she wanted. With a cry of "Here we go!" blue energy began gathering around her fist, which she drove into the ground. "Final Heaven!"

For at least five feet all around Tifa, the ground exploded into a brilliant corona of light, shredding Neoshadows and Darkballs alike, and sending a flood of pink crystal hearts floating into the sky. With a start, Kairi noticed an Invisible forming behind her, blue blade already preparing to lob her head off, and yelled a hurried warning of, "Tifa! Behind you!" However, just as the woman spun around, the Heartless swung.

Before the attack could connect, the Invisible's face was consumed by fire, and Tifa quickly leapt to one side, the sword slicing the tips of a few strands of her hair. With a growl, Tifa leapt up so that her feet were resting against the blinded Invisibles face, before vaulting backwards, kicking it under the chin as she did so. Then, before it could recover, she swung around behind it, grabbed it under the arms, before leaning backwards at what looked like a painful angle, driving it head-first into the ground, where it splintered into shadows, the trapped heart freed.

Turning to regard Tifa's rescuer, Kairi stopped a familiar-looking mop of brown hair. Smiling, Tifa called out, "Nice timing Squall." The stoic man simply smiled, and didn't correct her about the name; either he was back to using his original name again, or Tifa was on the list of those he let get away with not calling him 'Leon'.

"You decided to join us?" Cloud asked calmly; the two men had something of a friendly rivalry.

"I couldn't let you have all the fun," Squall replied in a similar tone, burying his gunblade in one Neoshadow, and pulling the trigger to blast the one behind it. With a silent snarl, a mass of white energy extended out from Squall's gunblade, easily four times his height, and he used his new reach to cleave through a mass of Heartless.

Smirking, Cloud decided to one-up him, lightning crackling around his massive sword as he swung it, five separate blades separating from the main weapon. Defying gravity, Cloud dashed through the mass of Heartless, grabbing each weapon one at a time and using them to dice through the sea of yellow eyes. Five attacks made, Cloud grabbed the final sword, and with one final, descending slash, obliterated no less than two dozen more Heartless is a massive explosion, before the five smaller swords dropped point-first into the ground around him.

As Cloud began piecing his weapon back together, amidst using it to fend off further attackers, Tifa couldn't help but sigh amusedly, turning to Kairi and Namine and remarking, "Boys... Always so competitive. It wouldn't surprise me if they're keeping score."

"One hundred twenty-seven," Cloud commented with a grin.

"Fifty-eight," Squall added, "But he had a head start."

With a guilty smile, Sora added, "Five hundred and thirty-nine. Roughly."

Namine couldn't help but giggle as she watched both older men wince and start attacking with more fury, as if determined to catch up to the Keyblade Master.

o-o-o

Xurik scowled fiercely as he watched the fight below. Sora had been beaten, he could practically taste his victory, and then these people had shown up and ruined everything! With them protecting Sora, the chances of any of the Heartless slipping past and finishing off even _one_ of them was slim. At this point, he knew his choices were limited if he wanted to hurt Sora, here and now: he could either release the Nobodies, which would throw doubt on what he had been trying to do by sending only Heartless after the so-called 'Keyblade Master', and the other option was to find stronger Heartless to send after him.

Glancing around the battlefield, Xurik's mind drifted back to the mass of records Organization XIII had, in particular, the Heartless they had catalogued. During their time, the Organization had created many powerful Heartless, both to collect hearts, and to test Sora's strength, so they could better prepare to defeat him when he got out of hand. Most of them he discarded immediately, simply because they were what was known as Emblem Heartless; purely artificial in origin. Though many had actual human hearts, the Heartless wasn't created by falling to darkness; it was engineered towards becoming a Heartless.

No, for this exercise, he needed to use only Pure-blooded Heartless, hearts fallen to darkness; with the darkness tainted by Hades' Keyblade, it would draw attention away from his own activities until the time was right. Snapping his fingers, he remembered a trio of Heartless that would work just fine. First was the Possessor, a Heartless with no real form of it's own, but one that could, instead, possess and animate other objects, usually statues. He discarded that idea too; this was a barren wasteland, with nothing to possess.

The next step up from a Possessor, however, was promising. Zexion, it's designer, had named it Shadow Stalker. Like the Possessor, the Shadow Stalker had the ability to possess and animate inanimate objects, but unlike the Possessor, the Shadow Stalker did not die when slain; instead, it's true form, restrained by chain, was released. More interesting, the true form of every Shadow Stalker was different. It had been noted that Shadow Stalkers seemed to absorb... something from their surroundings, which altered their true forms; for example, the one they had released in their castle strongly resembled a Nobody when released, while the one they sent after the Beast resembled the Beast himself.

Summoning half a dozen Darkballs back to himself, one for each of the insects fighting in the canyon, Xurik began infusing them with his own personal Nothingness, beginning the process of converting them into Shadow Stalkers. He felt a cold grin come to his face. 'Let's see how Sora and his friends deal with these.'

o-o-o

"Ugh, have we even put a dent in this army?" Squall groaned in annoyance. The three defenders had been pushed back by the seemingly endless wave of Heartless, so that now the three of them stood with their backs facing the three they protected, just out of arms reach of them.

"What's the matter? You're not scared are you?" Cloud quipped, though truth be told, he was a little worried himself; not for his own safety, of course, but for Tifa. If Sora hadn't been exaggerating his kill total, when added to what he knew he himself had killed, and what Tifa and Squall had reported _they_ had killed, the tally was well over a thousand, and the army amasses against them didn't look any smaller; there were, however, a lot more of the Darkballs, and the ones Sora called Invisibles, than there had been before.

Before the other man could respond, a loud machine-like roar filled the air, as a massive dark shape cast a shadow down on them as it passed, and moments later, fire erupted towards the back of the Heartless' ranks. Glancing up, Sora noticed the strangest vessel he had seen (which was saying something, considering some of the Gummi and Heartless ship he'd seen) launching a massive salvo of missiles into the Heartless flanks.

As the ship passed directly overhead, Sora could see someone leap off the back, sailing down towards them at high speed, spinning rapidly, and launching a hail of... something small. At what seemed like the last possible second, a dome of cloth erupted from the figure's back, slowing their descent, and as the person drew closer, the grinning face of Yuffie became visible. Cutting her parachute, which then drifted off to parts unknown, the girl landed inside the ring of defenders, exclaiming excitedly, "Woo! I may hate flying, but the fall is exhilarating! You guys should try it sometimes!" It was then that the mass of shuriken she'd thrown fell amongst the Heartless, a smattering of hearts drifting skywards.

"Yuffie!" The three teens cried out, Sora adding, "Thanks for coming to help us. All of you." The last part he addressed to everyone.

The young ninja flushed slightly, before replying, "I didn't just come for you ya know? These Heartless think they can mess up our world again, but they're not gonna get away with it this time!"

"Where are the others?" Cloud asked, before the girl could go off on one of her tirades about how awesome she was.

As if in answer to his question, a wolf-like howl echoed through the air, before a red blur charged through the Heartless, carving a path straight to them, and slowing to reveal a strange red cat-wolf-thing, with a black humanoid cat doll riding on it's back. Moments later, machine gun fire sounded from the opposite direction, destroying at least a dozen Neoshadows, before a green blast consumed the Invisible blocking the way through. When the shadows cleared, they revealed a huge dark-skinned man, who had a massive weapon instead of a right hand, made up of a long central column, with three smaller columns circling it.

"Nanaki! Barret! It's good to see you guys again; it's been way too long!" Tifa remarked, heedless of the danger all around them; it's not like it was a new thing to her anyway.

The one Tifa'd called Barret grinned, hefting his massive machine-gun arm and replying, "You bet it has. You and Spiky been keepin' outta trouble?"

The cat-like creature smiled, surprising the teens as it spoke. "It is good to see you again; a shame it had to happen under such circumstances." Twisting his head towards the doll, Nanaki added, "Can someone get this fur rug off me? It's harder to fight with the extra weight."

"Who're you callin' a rug, you flea bag!" The doll replied, in a thick, rolling accent.

"Just shut up and cast your magic," Nanaki remarked irritably.

Glancing at the cat doll, Tifa added a touch more sternly, "You know Reeve, one of these days I'm going to put you through a training course so you can be here in person, instead of using your Cait Sith dolls all the time."

A different voice came from the doll's mouth this time; sounding much like a businessman. "I'll put it on my schedule back-log, and have my secretary call you when I have an opening."

Turning away from the reunion, Yuffie regarded the fallen Keyblade Master, tutting slightly, a mocking grin on her face. "Oh Sora, I thought you were better than this. Don't you usually keep a supply of Potions and what-have-you for this sort of thing?"

Sora just rolled his eyes. "Hades used my supply keeping me alive. Forgive me if I haven't had time to restock yet."

"Well, I guess I could help you out this once." Still grinning, the ninja girl produced a trio of bottles, giving one to each of them, before adding, "I'm billing you for them once we're finished here, ya know?"

"We know Yuff," Sora replied, rolling his eyes again, though he was grinning this time. Removing the cap, he knocked the Elixir back, his girls waiting until he'd done so before copying the motion. Fully healed, Sora climbed back to his feet, cracking his neck to one side before throwing his arms to either side, summoning Oblivion and Twilight Thorn in a flash of light. Turning to glance amongst the group of friends, he declared, "Let's finish this!"

o-o-o

"Just how many of them are there?" Xurik drawled, feeling something resembling irritation; at least, as much as Nobodies felt anything. The first of his Shadow Stalkers had been a failure, but he had learnt from his mistakes, and had five left to unleash upon Sora and his ever-increasing army of friends. The Shadow Stalkers still resembled the Darkballs they had been created from, though now, instead of three tendrils, they had two large ones on either side, curved like horns, and a series of smaller ones; instead of purple, all tendrils of the Shadow Stalker were red on the ends.

The jagged row of teeth remained, with a fire-red inside the mouth, and the bright yellow eyes looked even more crazed. The main difference, however, were a metal band on each horn, two thick steel-looking chains crossed over the face and entwining behind into one length, a separate length of chain threaded through the bottom of the loops, as well as four weighted lengths of chain hanging from the bottom chain.

Admiring his handiwork for a moment, Xurik mused that even if Sora remembered how this type of Heartless fought, he could do nothing to prevent their true forms being released. In every way, the Shadow Stalker was a Heartless within a Heartless, so instead of releasing a heart when slain, it released _another_ Heartless, which, in turn, contained the imprisoned heart.

"Go!" He ordered with a wave of his hand. "Destroy Sora and his allies!"

o-o-o

"So you're the kid Spiky told us about? Keyblader who saved the worlds?" Barret drawled.

"Yeah, that's me," Sora replied, adding, "But we should probably save the introductions for _after_ the battle."

"Barret, where's Vincent?" Cloud asked, not taking his eyes off the Heartless for a second.

"He got here 'fore us," The black man replied, scanning the 'crowd' before pointing his left hand. "There he is."

"Where?" Kairi asked, trying to spot the man in question. "All I can feel out there is darkness, and a concentrated area of _massive_ darkness."

"That sounds like Vincent all right," Squall remarked with a wry grin.

A gasp was torn from Kairi's mouth as she saw the man Barret was pointing to, when he leapt out of the Heartless army, red cape billowing after him, as he pumped round after round into the Heartless from t he tri-barrel gun in his right hand. Vincent then proceeded to _fly_ through the air towards them, shooting any Heartless stupid enough to try and catch him, before landing near Cloud and remarking, "We have a problem."

"You mean one other than the never-ending army?" Tifa cut in.

"I think he means those," Sora remarked, pointing Oblivion and Twilight Thorn at two identical Heartless, different from everything else around them; one directly ahead of him, the other a way to his left. Glancing around, he noticed three more, equally spaced, like the points on a star, the centre of which was them.

"What are they Sora?" Namine asked with a touch of fear; even without the strong dark senses that Kairi and Sora had, she could still feel the darkness around them.

"Shadow Stalkers," the boy replied. "They have the ability to possess anything, and animate it. I don't understand why they'd be here though. There's nothing they can possess, except-" His eyes widened suddenly, "The ground! If they possess the ground, there's almost no way for us to hurt them, but every way for them to hurt us." Sure enough, the five powerful Heartless floated down towards, and into, the ground, and five massive dark shapes began slowly drawing closer to the group.

"So what're we gonna do if we can't hurt 'em?" Yuffie asked almost frantically.

Thinking quickly, Cloud snapped his phone open, hitting the speed dial and declaring as soon as it was answered, "Cid, bring the Shera around. Bring the rain. Right where we are. Hurry." Without another word to the man on the other end, he snapped his phone shut again, before turning to Sora and asking, "Can you shield us? You're the only one here with any real magical talent, at least until the others get here."

"I'll do what I can," Sora replied solemnly. Closing his eyes, he cried out "Power!" before being encased by a sphere of light, which shattered to reveal Sora wearing blue clothes with flame decals, and wielding a single keyblade, shaped like a serpentine neck with a open mouth; Wisdom Form, wielding the Fatal Crest keyblade. As the roar of engines drew closer once again, and the dark shadows in the ground approached, Sora held Fatal Crest above his head, shouting "Reflectaga," and the group was shielded by a massive dome of interlaced cyan honeycomb plates.

The Shadow Stalkers battered helplessly against the shield, jaws rising out of the ground to snap away, trying to break through, but the shield held. As a massive salvo of missiles rained down all around them, obliterating much of the surrounding Heartless army, Sora grit his teeth as he forced himself to weather the rain of fire. Almost feeling his pain, the strain he was under, both Kairi and Namine wrapped their arms around him, lending him their own magical strength without even realising it, and just when it looked the barrier would fall it slammed back into place again, the plates shifting to orange.

The shrieks of injured Heartless assaulted Sora's ears, but he could tell that all five of the Shadow Stalkers had survived; however, the ground they possessed was torn up, forcing them to release, which gave him the perfect chance. Dropping the shield, the mass of energy it had blocked was all released at once, a huge shockwave rippling out, further tearing up the ground, and more importantly, tearing up the Shadow Stalkers. It was in their dying moments, however, that Sora remembered something important: the fight wasn't over yet.

Before he had any chance to ponder this further, the remaining Heartless forces swarmed in, and he was forced once again to fight. Dropping out of Wisdom Form, he prepared to meet the wave of Heartless head on, when they were suddenly obliterated by a hail of lightning. Glancing up, the Destiny Islanders could see a strange winged woman approaching, with some sort of disc attached to a bracer on her left hand, while with her right hand she carried Aerith down to the battlefield.

Setting the brunette on the ground, the new girl, dressed in mostly blue, smiled over at Squall and asked, "Did we miss the fun?"

Smiling back for a moment, Squall's reply was drowned out by the roar of engines, as the Shera flew over again, though this time, the only thing it dropped was Cid himself; he had no need for a parachute though, using his Jump ability to leapfrog between Heartless on the way down. Greeting the uncouth man quickly, he turned to answer Rinoa once more, but when he noticed something behind her, his face turned serious again as he replied, "I thought you were here just in time to help with the clean-up Rinoa, but it seems this fight isn't over yet."

True to Sora's fears, the five Shadow Stalkers, while destroyed, weren't gone. But the five new powerful Heartless he saw ringing the battlefield he didn't recognize; well, one looked similar to the Dark Thorn that the _last_ Shadow Stalker he had fought had become, but it wasn't the same. Instead, it looked more like a blue furred werewolf, with two massive golden horns curving back over it's shoulders, two smaller golden horns curving before it's face, black claws adorning his fingers and feet, and blue flame-like fur flickering from it's wrists and knees, as well as a massive mane of it down it's back.

The next one in line resembled a moss-green scaled bird, with wings more resembling those of a bat, with a trio of bone hooks near it's shoulders, and a thick, segmented tail. On the werewolf's other side was a stormy blue horse, with thick, powerful forelegs, a back half smaller than the front, and a red horn jutting from it's forehead, shaped like half a spade; the card spade, not the shovel. Beside the horse was a tall woman, turquoise in colour, with thick blue-green braids, tipped with bronze rings.

The final one was a massive bipedal dragon, midnight blue scaled on it's back, blood red scaled on it's underbelly, with hooked red talons on fingers and toes, a thick armoured tail, and bladed on the ends of each 'arm' of it's enormous wings. Other than similar colour schemes, all five of these new figures shared a single feature: they all had a massive heart-shaped hole through their chest, out the other side, though in the case of the unicorn, it went sideways through it's flank, rather than up from it's chest to it's back.

Gasping slightly, the woman identified as Rinoa remarked, "They... They look like the guardians of the planet."

"They're not, right?" Yuffie asked, looking around the group. "I mean, the Heartless didn't really get them, did they?"

"No," Aerith replied soothingly. "The darkness... lingers. Almost like a curse upon the planet. The fact the Heartless have managed to assume those forms, to inspire fear in us no doubt, shows just how deep the corruption goes. I fear that, unless the darkness is cleansed from this ground, this battle will never be over." Turning to Kairi, she added, "Princess, I will need your help, your light, for this task."

"Whatever I can do to help," Kairi replied with a smile, the two moving into the centre of the clearing, as Aerith began explaining softly what they needed to do.

"That leaves twelve of us," Squall commented.

Cloud nodded slightly. "Two per rare Heartless, with two left to mop up the survivors, and to keep Aerith and Kairi safe." Glancing across the group quickly, Cloud made his decisions, calling out, "Vincent, Rinoa, the bird; you can both fly. Squall, Tifa, take the beast; you've got the muscle. Cid, Red, the horse; the two of you have the speed. Yuffie-" He trailed off, not knowing what, exactly, the blonde keybearer was called

"Namine," she commented helpfully.

With a nod, Cloud continued, "Yuffie, Namine, your target is the woman; I think you've both got the agility needed. Barret, Reeve, the two of you are on crowd control. That leaves you with me Sora, and we're going after the dragon."

Silent agreement given, the warriors paired up, Barret and Cait Sith taking up positions near Aerith and Kairi, both of which seemed to be in deep prayer now, while the other five teams assembled near their respective targets. Glancing over at her partner, Yuffie noticed Namine's hands shaking, before asking her quietly, "Hey, what's wrong?"

Startled that she'd been noticed, Namine replied, "It's just... this is my first real battle, and I'm worried... I'm worried I going to mess up and get someone killed."

Yuffie just grinned. "Re-lax, I'm sure you'll do fine. After all, you've got the Great Ninja Yuffie Kisaragi by your side." A touch more seriously (and about as serious as Yuffie ever got) she added, "I'll watch your back."

"Are you ready for this?" Cloud asked Sora seriously, as he caught the boy glancing over between Namine and Kairi.

"Are you?" Sora replied, turning back to face the man. "I know what's at stake here."

Cloud nodded. "Good."

There was a tense silence as both sides sized each other up, and out of the corner of his eye, Sora noticed a hooded figure, high up on the cliff tops watching them. Before he could ponder it a moment longer, though, the shrouded figure raised his hand, and as one, the Heartless surged forward.

The final battle for Radiant Garden had begun.

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Author's Notes

It always surprises me just how easy it is to write a chapter of this story. The joy of writing this story compared to Disturbance is if something doesn't fit into a chapter, there's no worries about pushing it back to the next one, such as the upcoming boss fight mentioned above. I'd initially planned to have the whole fight scene in one chapter, when I thought that it would be best to end with a boss fight.

The fact the boss fight didn't fit into this chapter already gives me a starting point for the next, and the ideas are already churning out for what to include in chapter nine. The free-form, and pressure free, nature of this story is a god-send after writing a chapter of Disturbance. Fortunately, Disturbance is almost over, and unless I've missed my guess (again), the remaining four chapters should all be fairly easy to write.

Hopefully it won't take me quite so long to get the next chapter up, but until then, stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion. :D


	10. Those Who Fight Further

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 09 - Those Who Fight Further

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

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_I though staying in perfect shape was part of the hero job description_

_Like I said: details, who needs 'em?_

_I'm not a selfish guy. I'm not like those high and mighty snobs up on Olympus. I stand for the masses!_

_This game is over. I've played by the rules so far. Now we're gonna play by my rules._

_How dare you get a happy ending! How DARE you!_

Staring down the Heartless dragon before him, Sora felt it was poetic that, of all of the big bads he'd faced since first leaving Destiny Islands, it was Hades' voice that he remembered now. After all, if not for Hades, he'd not be in this situation at all, but then, despite the war raging all around them, it was nice to see his friends again, and to meet _their_ friends. His thoughts scattered as the Heartless dragon roared, bringing with it the foul stench of darkness; a darkness he now knew he recognised.

Before he could do anything with this knowledge, though, there was a little matter of a dragon bearing down on him. 'Hope Ender,' Sora thought to himself, gritting his teeth; he wasn't sure exactly how he knew the Heartless' name, but he did know he wouldn't like the answer. Likewise, he knew the beast was Twilight Inferno, the woman was Black Heart of Winter, the bird was Fade Wing, and the unicorn Nightmare Charger. He chanced a quick glance back at Kairi, still deep in prayer with Aerith; she hadn't reacted too badly when he had admitted that yes, he could control the Heartless, but would she think less of him if he told her they talked to him?

Banishing the thought from his mind as Hope Ender drew closer, Sora used his Strike Raid ability to hurl both keyblades at the Heartless, Oblivion grazing it's head, and Twilight Thorn punching through the dragon's right wing. With Hope Ender's flight imbalanced, the Keyblade Master used his Quick Run to close the distance between them, before using High Jump and Aerial Dodge to leap up to, and through, the massive hole in the dragon's chest. Spinning through the air, Sora leapt off the returning Oblivion, snatching Twilight Thorn out of the air as he flew towards the dragon's back, and driving the keyblade into the base of Hope Ender's neck.

With it's wing damaged, Hope Ender was forced to land, digging up the ground with it's clawed feet as it stumbled; this awkward gait was further compounded by the keyblade in it's spine. As it staggered forward, Cloud grinned slightly, holding his massive sword in front of him and utilizing the Sonic Blade ability he taught Sora long ago to drive his sword into, and through, one of the Heartless dragon's legs.

Roaring in pain, and still off balance from it's emergency landing, Cloud's attack caused Hope Ender to trip over, impacting the ground with titanic force as it face-planted comically. Turning to give Cloud a thumbs-up, Sora noticed the hole in Hope Ender's wing fill in, moments before the dragons head turned towards him, unleashing a gout of flame, and the Keyblade Master was forced to dive off or be roasted alive. Groaning disappointedly as the dragon took to the sky again, he summoned both keyblades back to his hands.

Grinning slightly, Cloud asked, "You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?"

Sora could help but grin back and shrug slightly, replying, "For a minute there, yeah, I kinda did."

o-o-o

Tifa brought both arms up to block the kick Twilight Infernus sent her way, absorbing most of the hit, and reducing the powerful attack to a simple half-foot slide back. Before the Heartless could recover, Tifa grabbed hold of it's extended leg with both hands, letting out a grunt of effort as she twisted on the spot, yanking the Heartless off the ground, and spinning around on the spot. A grin on his face, Squall stood just outside of the swing radius, slashing his gunblade at the beast every time it came within range, before, on the fifth rotation, Tifa released her hold on it, sending it flying across the canyon.

"Why did we have to get the fire one?" Squall asked rhetorically, his tone annoyance and humour in equal parts. "I mean, the only magic spell I know, and it's useless. Worse than useless, since it'll probably heal the damn thing."

Tifa just grinned at him, her hands glowing with icy blue energy as she quipped, "And whose fault is it that you don't have any materia to counter that fact?"

Squall just rolled his eyes. "You know how I feel about that stuff. It's a crutch, and I refuse to use it."

"And this is why Cloud beats you. Blizzaga!" Tifa shot back, unleashing a massive ice spell at the recovered fire demon Heartless bearing down on them. "He's not afraid to do what needs to be done." Twilight Infernus leapt over the Blizzaga spell, which sent up a field of ice shards as it hit the ground, and roared in defiance as it continued through the air over the two fighters; or tried to, at least.

Just as it passed over her head, Tifa leapt into the air, spinning slightly for extra lift and punching upwards, utilising her Dolphin Blow to halt Twilight Infernus' momentum. Before the Heartless could recover, Squall leapt into the air after it, using his Renzokuken technique to slash it eight times in quick succession. As gravity started to take hole again, Squall leapt off the falling beast, taking to the air above, and held his gunblade above himself, a mass of white energy extending from it again as he used Blasting Zone for the second time, and with a massive swing, sent the Heartless plummeting to the ground, rather than merely falling.

Dropping into her fighting stance as Squall landed on the ground once more, Tifa grinned over at the fallen Heartless, shouting, "Come on beast, on your feet. The fun is just starting."

o-o-o

Nanaki raced alongside the galloping Nightmare Charger, the Heartless' powerful hooves ripping up the stony ground as it tried to put some distance between itself and it's would-be attackers. Every now and then, Nightmare Charger would veer to one side, moments before the ground there exploded, the ensuing dust cloud fading to reveal Cid's scowling face, before he leapt into the air again. Nanaki snarled slightly as, after several minutes of this cat and mouse game, Nightmare Charger showed no signs of slowing down, or fighting back; it was as if it's method of fighting was to allow them to wear themselves down, before finishing them off.

The tribal headdress in his mane glowing slightly as he activated his materia, Nanaki sent a Quake spell ahead of the sprinting unicorn, causing the ground to splinter and fault, and, more importantly, causing Nightmare Charger to stumble and fall when the Heartless encountered the trap. Before the red lion-wolf could gloat, however, Nightmare Charger reacted immediately, living up to the second part of it's name when electricity began dancing along it's horn moments before firing a massive bolt of lightning that struck the still-sprinting Nanaki in the side, sending him sprawling.

Before the charge could continue into fatal levels, however, the Heartless' concentration was broken by the spear driven into his back, courtesy of Cid. Scrambling back onto all four legs, the lightning horse attempted to throw the coarse Dragoon off it's back, but Cid managed to hold on, wrapping a leg around the spear he had firmly wedged in the creature's back; he _did_ lose his cigarette though. When raw muscle failed to dislodge him, however, Nightmare Charger leaned it's head back, lightning gathering on it's horn again, and Cid was quickly forced to yank his spear out and leap off the Heartless' back.

Rolling back to his feet, Cid pulled another cigarette out of the pack in his pocket, lighting it with a frown as he watched Nightmare Charger starting to run away again. "I'm getting mighty tired of this chase bullshit," the blonde man drawled, a quick glance at the recovering Nanaki showing the lion-dog felt much the same. Reaching into a pocket on the other side, he produced a red cylinder about a foot in length, capped at one end by a length of cord; a standard stick of TNT. Holding the dynamite up to his face, and lighting the fuse with his cigarette, the pilot added, "Let's see how he handles a few of these."

o-o-o

With an avian screech, Fade Wing took to the sky, flying high over the battlefield, higher than the Shera had flown for it's bombing run, and began charging up energy in it's mouth. It's concentration was shattered, however, as Vincent suddenly flew into view, his Cerberus tri-barrelled rifle at the ready, and unloaded a trio of rounds into the Heartless' face. Screeching in pain, Fade Wing clapped it's wings together, sending out a powerful shockwave that sent Vincent flying back a good thirty feet.

With a powerful flap of her white-feathered wings, Rinoa glided up behind the Heartless, hurling her chakram with a flick of her wrist, the whirling razor-sharp blade slicing deep into the avian Heartless' back. Holding her hands above her, Rinoa began gathering electric energy, unleashing the magical attack before Fade Wing could recover from her sneak attack. "Thundaja!" Massive arcs of lightning traced the sky between Rinoa and Fade Wing, seeking the metal chakram still embedded in the Heartless' back.

Shrieking in pain again, Fade Wing drew it's wings in, spinning rapidly as it dived towards the ground, and dislodging the chakram in the process. Snapping it's wings open again, the Heartless banked sharply, rearing it's head back to face it's two opponents high above, and firing a powerful laser from it's beak. Disappearing into his cloak, Vincent managed to quickly dodge out of the way, but Rinoa was forced to fold her wings in front of her as a shield.

Gritting her teeth as Fade Wing focused all its attention on trying to blast through her wing barrier, it gave Vincent more than enough time to sneak up on it, reforming behind it. Landing on the Heartless' shoulder, Vincent pressed Cerberus against the side of it's head, emptying an entire clip into it, and pumping eighteen shots directly into it's blue scaly mane. Crying out in pain, Fade Wing spun through the air, trying to dislodge the dark man, but Vincent merely held on with his gauntleted hand, reloading his rifle one-handed with practiced ease.

Emptying a few more rounds into it's back, he heard Rinoa shout out, "Vincent, move!" Not wasting a moment, he leapt off the Heartless, continuing to fire even as he spun away, and with Fade Wing's attention to solidly on Vincent, it never noticed the massive Firaja meteor Rinoa sent it's way. Not until it slammed into, and washed over, the dark bird. Rinoa just grinned, with a look that seemed to say she'd spent far too much time hanging out with Yuffie, as she declared, "One roast chicken coming up!"

o-o-o

"Kya!" Yuffie shrieked, ducking under the blue leg that would have taken her head off, spinning around and swinging her leg up to strike Black Heart in the back. Planting her leg back on the ground again, she lashed out with her other foot, kicking the already off balance heartless in the lower back, and followed through by hurling a handful of shuriken at the Heartless woman. Spinning to face Namine, the ninja girl exclaimed frantically, "Feel free to jump in any time!"

Standing nearby, Namine's greatest fear had come true, as she found herself too frozen with fear to act. Yuffie was fighting the powerful Heartless in hand-to-hand combat, and losing, and Namine found herself too scared to help her. 'I... I need to do something.' Her mind drifted back to Sora, and to the legion of Heartless she remembered him fighting. 'I need to be strong. I need to prove to myself that I can.' Gritting her teeth, Namine hurled one of her keyblades at the Heartless, shouting, "Move!"

Pausing briefly in her fight to glance at the girl in shock, Yuffie let out a squawk of surprise before disappearing in a cloud of smoke as Floral Fallal spun through the air, slamming into Black Heart at high speed. As the keyblade spun back towards her, Namine held the Kingdom Key before her, closing the gap with the Heartless using Sonic Blade, snatching Floral Fallal out of the air as she did, and stabbing both keyblades into Black Heart's stomach.

Before the blonde keybearer could celebrate, Black Heart retaliated, two of her dreadlocks wrapping around the girl's wrists. The Heartless grinned at her callously, placing both hands against her chest, and unleashing a punishing Blizzard spell at point blank range, hitting her for a good five seconds before the hair tendrils released her, and sent her flying across the wasteland. "Namine!" Yuffie exclaimed, trying to run to the girl's side, but the Heartless intercepted her, and Yuffie again found herself hard pressed to beat it.

Namine felt the ice rapidly encasing her body, her teeth chattering as she tried to remember the Fire spell Sora had taught her, tried to defrost herself, and failed each time. 'I c-couldn't d-do it...' she thought to herself sadly. 'I'm j-just no-not st-strong enough. I w-wish...' Abruptly, the sky lit up with fire, as she saw Rinoa strike Fade Wing with a massive Fire spell. 'I wish I was s-stronger. I wish I w-was like Rinoa.'

Just before the ice covered her completely, Namine felt a rush of heat through her body, before her form was drowned out by a blinding flash of light, the ice shattering. When the ice died down, Namine was gone, and Yuffie couldn't help but gape at who had replaced her. "Rinoa? But-" glancing up, the ninja girl saw that, yes, Rinoa was still flying high above, throwing around magic like it was going out of style. "How-"

"Yuffie! Duck!" The second Rinoa shouted, raising her right arm and instinctively launching a Firaga spell that nearly singed the ninja's hair, and did more than singe the ice Heartless behind her. Gaping herself in shock as she realised what she'd done, she examined her body quickly, finding it wasn't one she recognised. "How did I-"

"Namine? Is that you?"

Glancing over at the stunned Yuffie, Namine, looking exactly like Rinoa, shrugged helplessly. "I guess so." Holding her hands out to either side, Namine tried to summon her keyblades, but the weapons that came to her were not what she'd called. In her right hand, she held a replica of Squall's gunblade, and around her left wrist, rested the band Rinoa herself had, her chakram unfolding as she watched. Smiling slightly as she felt her new wings unfold, the girl-in-a-woman's-form remarked, "I'll work out the 'how' later. For now, we've got a Heartless to kill."

o-o-o

Taking a bit of a breather as Cloud clashed with Hope Ender, Sora took a moment to take quick stock of the battlefield. Cid and Nanaki were taking pot-shots at the galloping Nightmare Charger with explosives and Firaga spells respectively; Rinoa and Vincent were unleashing powerful attacks against the swift Fade Wing, while trying to dodge laser blasts and razor sharp wind; Tifa seemed to be wrestling with Twilight Infernus, Squall taking opportunities to slash it whenever they came about; Yuffie was almost sparring with Black Heart, while... another Rinoa? Blinking dumbly, Sora saw that, yes, there was a second Rinoa, who seemed to be taking great pleasure in using her wings for hit and run strikes with the bladed weapons in either hand, as well as powerful Fire magic.

Shaking his head slightly, Sora glanced towards the middle of the battlefield, spotting Barret, with Cait Sith sitting backwards on his left shoulder, had waded deep into the sea of beady yellow eyes, the powerful machine gun, and cat puppet's lightning magic, making quick work of the horde of Neoshadows, with occasional blasts of green plasma or Firaga, respectively, for the more powerful Darkballs or Invisibles. Unfortunately, Sora noticed that Aerith and Kairi were now undefended, and, it seemed, the Heartless noticed it too.

"Shit!" The Keyblade Master exclaimed. "I've got to go help Kairi and Aerith!"

"Relax," Cloud remarked, landing beside him, but not taking his eye away from the Heartless Dragon circling back their way. "He's got the situation well under control."

"Who does?"

Cloud just grinned. "You'll see."

o-o-o

"Ugh, incompetent Heartless," Xurik muttered with what passed for disgust. "Useless creatures. Imbued with all that power, and still they can't manage to destroy a mere handful of people. Feh." At the edge of his hearing, he noticed some sort of motor rumbling, a noise that was quickly approaching. Spinning around, Xurik's eyes widened in as close to shock as he could feel as he saw a black-haired man on a motorbike tearing ass towards him.

Opening a Dark Portal behind him, Xurik quickly stepped through, teleporting to the other side of the canyon, and watching as the dark-haired man actually accelerated as he approached the cliff, launching off it at high speed. Then, with casual ease, he swung his feet up on to the seat, unsheathed a pair of swords that had been strapped on either side of the bike's front wheel, and leapt off. As the bike crashed into the centre of a mass of Heartless, exploding in a mighty petrol-fuelled fireball, the black-haired man landed, swords first, on a pair of Invisibles that had snuck up on the two praying girls, impaling the Heartless' heads to the rough stone, before rolling back to his feet.

"Not bad," Squall called out. "You stuck the landing, so I'm going to have to give you about an eight."

"What about the fact he trashed is bike doing it?" Tifa remarked in a disapproving tone.

Squall just grinned. "Ah, of course. Make that a nine."

Cloud just rolled his eyes, giving Sora a wry look as he remarked, "You'll have to forgive Zack. He has a knack for being late."

The dark-haired man, his wild spiky hair trailing past his shoulder, just grinned, yanking his two swords out of the rapidly decaying Heartless corpses. "What can I say? I love flashy entrances."

Sora opened his mouth, before changing his mind, shaking his head slowly as he remarked, "Introductions can wait until after the battle." Turning back to the approaching dragon Heartless, Sora declared, "Let's finish this."

o-o-o

Vincent growled to himself in annoyance as he was forced one again to dodge the subsonic Heartless known as Fade Wing. 'I can't kill it if I can't target it.' "Rinoa, can you slow it down?"

"I'll go you one better," the perky girl replied, swinging both arms up above her head as she hovered in place, magical energy building up in her hands. As Fade Wing swung around for another pass, Rinoa threw out her left arm, her chakram carrying the collected magical energy, which exploded into a massive Tornado, the base of which actually dragged more than a few lesser Heartless from the rocky ground, and proved more than enough to snare the oncoming dark bird.

Screeching as the wild winds spun it around, Fade Wing unleashed it's laser again, the super hot orange beam lancing wildly through the sky. With a yelp, Rinoa folded her wings in front of her again, seconds before the laser buzzed her wing barrier. When this attack failed, Fade Wing used it's trump, it's ultimate attack. Raising it's head high despite the rapid vertical spin, the Heartless bird fired off a massive barrage of lasers, which weaved and arced through the air wildly, and kept firing.

Vincent cursed to himself as he was forced to dodge the barrage, shooting Rinoa a wry look and commenting, "Looks like all you've accomplished is making it angry."

"It's not the only one!" Rinoa growled back, icy energy gathering around her hands, before she threw open her winds and fired. "Blizzaja!" The sub-zero magical energy wove itself through the Tornado, encasing all of the lesser Heartless inside in a thick layer of ice, as well as the head and wings of Fade Wing.

Satisfied that their opponent was, for now at least, contained, Vincent concentrated on the Darkness within himself. "Fight fire, with fire," he intoned, "Fight darkness, with darkness." Purple-black energy began swirling around his body, simultaneously bleeding out of and seeping into him. The golden metal on his boots and left arm faded to a yellowish grey, his boots now topped at the knee by pointed, upside-down crosses, as his skin faded to a cold, ashen blue. His billowing cape reformed into a pair of black-boned, red leathery wings, the edges ragged as his cape had been. His black bodysuit remoulded into a second skin, with muscle and rib designs. Finally, his mass of black hair, and the headband holding it back, were replaced by a spiky red-and-black headdress, which covered around his left eye.

In his right hand, the demonic Vincent no longer held the tri-barrelled rifle he named Cerberus. The hand cannon he now carried started with a bladed, stylised pistol grip, the pistol 'barrel' extending into a massive five-chambered revolver-type cylinder, and capped at the end by a cross-shaped barrel. The Death Penalty, wielded by Chaos-form Vincent.

With a single powerful thrust of his new wings, Vincent soared over to the incapacitated Fade Wing, intoning, "You shall trouble this world no more." Taking aim at the Heartless' frozen head, Vincent fired the Death Penalty repeatedly in quick succession, the enchanted (or some would say cursed) weapon never needing to be reloaded. The first few shots seemed to rebound off the ice casing, cracking it more and more, before the following dozen or so sunk deep into dark flesh. Without so much as a noise from the frozen Heartless, it's head was reduced to fragments of shadow, and it's body began dissolving soon after, releasing a crystal heart into the sky.

Vincent holstered the Death Penalty at his side, turning to regard Rinoa as she gave him a big grin and a thumbs up. This battle was over.

o-o-o

Twilight Infernus roared as it struck the ground again, Tifa having thrown the monster over her shoulder for possibly the third time. For all it's strength, the Heartless knew it couldn't out-muscle the dark-haired woman, but, remembering back to when it was still a lowly Darkball, it knew she didn't fare too well against multiple opponents at once. Climbing back to it's feet, Twilight Infernus let out another ground shaking roar, moments before a sea of darkness and beady yellow eyes spread across the earth, heralding the arrival of at least a third of the remaining lesser Heartless.

Backup, it seemed, had arrived.

"Damn it," Tifa cursed, glaring hate rays at the small army between her and her intended target; this was going to slow her down, and anything that slowed her down gave the beast time to not only recover, but retaliate. So far, she had managed to keep the Heartless from using many, if any, of it's fire magic, and she knew it was just waiting for a moment to strike her with her major weakness; she had very little resistance against magical energies, much to her chagrin.

"I'll cut a path for you," Squall remarked, holding his gunblade slightly behind him as he surged forward, dicing any Heartless that got in his way as he waded into the centre of them. "Go!"

Tifa wasted no time in arguing, racing past the man and leaping over a trio of Neoshadows as she rapidly closed the distance with Twilight Infernus. As the girl drew closer to strike range, the Heartless belched out a fireball, and, eyes wide, Tifa hit the dirt, sliding just under it, and taking the opportunity to sweep the beast's legs out from under it before warning Squall. "Watch out!"

Squall wasted no time, not even to investigate _why_ she was warning him, simply leaping onto one of the Neoshadows' heads, before leaping again, this time purely skyward bound. The fireball sailed beneath him to parts unknown, Squall taking the opportunity to finish this skirmish now, charging energy in his gunblade. As the swarm of Heartless started to leap up after him, he spun around through the air, swinging his gunblade around him as he did so, and releasing an energy shockwave that obliterated the disturbingly weak Neoshadows.

Climbing back to her feet, Tifa nimbly leapt backwards, putting her out of range of Twilight Infernus' aggravated claw swipe. Her eyes opened in shock as the Heartless began preparing another fireball quickly, but before it could form, the beast was struck in the side of the head by a stray white energy bolt. Not wasting the golden opportunity, Tifa charged forward and used Beat Rush, her speed increasing drastically as she lay into the Heartless with both fists, before Somersaulting it into the air.

Landing back on her feet, Tifa took to the air after it, using a combination of momentum and raw strength to spin the beast around in increasingly fast circles, before throwing it towards the ground with all her might. Tifa was sure the force of impact would kill the beast, and the Heartless itself was certain it would survive, but what neither counted on was the interference of Squall. Having landed slightly awkwardly, he had sprinted towards the two combatants, charging energy into his gunblade again, and as Twilight Infernus came down, Squall went up, jumping into the air with an upward slash of his weapon, and cutting the Heartless clean in half through the waist.

Gravity taking hold as the freed heart defied it, Tifa glanced quickly at the rapidly decaying body before glancing back at Squall and remarking, "I could've killed it myself you know."

He just shrugged, replying, "My way's faster." Tifa just sighed and shook her head, though she couldn't help the smile that came to her face. 'Boys will be boys.'

o-o-o

"How're we meant to kill this damn thing if we can't even bloody hit it?" Cid drawled irritably, hurling another lit stick of dynamite at Nightmare Charger. The Heartless was living up to it's name, getting plenty of distance from them, before charging towards them, and had it ever got close enough, it would've attempted to run them through with it's horn. However, whenever it looked like it was gathering any kind of speed, one of the two would distract it, either Cid by throwing dynamite, or Nanaki hurling fireballs.

After a few minutes of this, though, they were both running low on their respective ammunition.

"I'm open to suggestions if you have anything," Nanaki replied, leaping to one side as Nightmare Charger sent a bolt of lightning their way; it was the standard reaction to one of their explosive distractions. "I've almost drained my magical reserves beyond the safe level, and we haven't done much more than wing it or hit it with splash damage." They'd managed to eradicate a lot of the lesser Heartless that thought to help their stronger kin, but that was neither here nor there.

"Well, you're fast. Shit, that's why Cloud gave us this goddamn job. Can't you out-speed it?" Cid drawled.

"To what purpose?" Nanaki replied. "I can't do much when I'm beside it. I would need to be..." An idea coming to him, Nanaki smirked, a gesture that looked alien on his mostly feline face. "Cid, I need you to make sure that thing keeps it's charge to a straight line."

"What're you gonna do?" The pilot asked.

Nanaki just grinned, as he started running in the opposite direction to what Nightmare Charger went. "Play chicken."

Cid just rolled his eyes; it was moments like these that just proved to him that despite technically being older than Cid himself, Nanaki was still a child. Still, an idea was an idea, so, spear in hand, Cid leapt high into the air, using his Dragon Dive technique to strike down at rapid speed, before leaping back into the air again. He wasn't aiming to actually hit the Heartless unicorn though; he was aiming to steer it. And he had 5 more tries to get his aim right.

Skidding on the rocky soil, Nanaki spun to face the Heartless, his mind racing. 'This is so stupid,' he berated himself, 'If I don't time this exactly right, I'm going to end up skewered on that horn...' Gritting his teeth, he sunk his claws into the ground. 'Oh well, no time for regrets now!' With a roar, he shot away like a bullet.

'Finally,' Cid grumbled to himself; he could finally see Nanaki approaching, and he only had two 'hops' left to make sure the Heartless stayed on track. Two hops later, it looked like everything was going to plan, before Nightmare Charger seemed to realise that was walking into a trap, and started to veer off to the right. At least, right up until a fireball came out of nowhere and struck the Heartless in the right side, and, moments later, a stray white energy blast struck it on the left side of the head; thus, dazed, it continued on it's previous path.

Gritting his teeth, Nanaki waited until the last possible second, where he could almost feel the Heartless' horn pressing against him, before activating one of his special abilities, one he called Sled Fang. The air began to swirl around him, as his speed tripled in the space of under a heartbeat, and the now supersonic feline tackled a hole straight through Nightmare Charger's body, head to tail. With a pained whinny, Nightmare Charger gave up the ghost, collapsing to the ground and disintegrating, even as momentum kept the body sliding, and the freed heart drifted into the sky.

Stumbling as he landed outside the Heartless, his momentum causing him to slide uncontrolled along the dirt, Nanaki couldn't help but laugh. He hurt everywhere, and he was tired beyond belief, but he couldn't deny just how fun it had been to take that thing down. Even when Cid wandered up with a face full of scowl and jabbed him in the ribs with the blunt end of his spear, Nanaki couldn't keep the grin from his face. Eventually, even Cid's stony face broke out in a grin as the mentally older man remarked, "You did good kid."

"I did, didn't I?" The lion-dog laughed again, before groaning in pain. "Now let's hope Aerith finishes soon, I could really use some of her healing."

o-o-o

Flying through the air on her borrowed wings, Namine, in the guide of Rinoa, was having a grand time; if Rinoa felt even _half_ this powerful all the time, it was a wonder she wasn't drunk on her power. She and Yuffie were currently 'taking turns', as it was; Namine would swoop in and duel Black Heart for a while, mixing spells and attacks, and when her magical reserves were starting to drop, Yuffie would take over, and she would take to the sky again and observe Rinoa, trying to learn more how to be her.

This new ability of hers, she had quickly discovered, was based around memory; she could become Rinoa because she remembered her, but the older girl's memories didn't come with the package, and neither did her abilities. Once she'd realised that, she tried a little experimenting in her 'downtime', changing her voice to sound like other people, but didn't let herself focus on any single person for too long, just in case she changed into them fifty feet in the air; she didn't like her chances of changing into someone who could survive a fall that high without injury.

Back down on the ground, Yuffie was getting fed up of Black Heart being able to match all of her moves; one of these days, she really needed to do some more hand-to-hand training with Tifa. Leaping back slightly, she drew her left fist up, focusing her energy for a moment, before slamming her fist into the ground. The earth rumbled and shook, and the rock beneath Black Heart exploded beneath the Heartless, sending her soaring into the air. Yelping slightly, Yuffie held her hand against her chest.

Swooping down from the sky, Namine hurled her chakram at the airborne Heartless, the spinning blade driving it higher into the air. Landing next to the ninja girl, she asked worriedly, "Are you okay Yuffie?"

Nodding rapidly, Yuffie tried to shake off how weird it felt to hear Namine's voice come out of Rinoa's mouth, before replying weakly, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just didn't realise how much that would hurt without that huge glove I wore when I was younger." With a smile, she added a little stronger, "Go, kick her ass. I'll be okay."

With a nod and a flap of her wings, Namine took to the sky again, her chakram spinning back to her as she closed the gap between her and the now-falling Heartless. Slashing a few times with the gunblade in her right hand, she dove out of the way quickly when Black Heart retaliated, wincing slightly as the blast of ice clipped her wing, and throwing a fireball her way as a token of appreciation.

As Black Heart returned to the ground, Yuffie was waiting. Her massive shuriken held before her chest almost like a slanted, misshapen cross, Yuffie had been gathering all the energy she could spare, the silver weapon pulsing a rich purple. With an irate roar of "All Creation!" she unleashed a massive beam of purple-and-blue energy, at least twice as tall as she was, that washed over Black Heart, and continued on to chew through the remnants of the Heartless Army. When the massive beam of light faded, Yuffie was annoyed to see that Black Heart had survived, though much of it's hair was burnt away; that brought something of a smile to her face.

Diving out of the sky at high speed, Namine held her left hand out towards the burnt Heartless, firing wave after wave of Firaga spells, and sending down a veritable hail of fireballs. The spells weren't designed to finish the Heartless off though, merely to keep her distracted. With a tonne of momentum behind her, Namine swooped low towards Black Heart, using the last of her magical energy to erect a barrier around herself to protect her from fall damage, before willing herself back to being herself.

Her Rinoa guise shattering mid-fall back to her previous attire, keyblades in hand, Namine screamed out a battle cry, putting all her strength behind the Kingdom Key as she shouted, "Zantetsuken!" (1) There was a shower of dirt as the girl struck the ground behind the dazed Heartless, and for a moment it looked like she'd missed, before, with painful slowness, the Heartless' head separated from her body, before shattering into motes of darkness, freeing the captured heart.

Rushing over to the fallen girl, Yuffie pulled her up into a hug, grinning widely. "That was crazy girl! What if you missed? Why did you decide to try that ever?"

Namine just blushed shyly, before replying, "I just thought to myself, 'What would Sora do'."

The kunoichi paused for a moment, before grinning again. "Ah. That makes perfect sense then." Changing subjects rapidly, she asked excitedly, "So how did you-" Namine tried to tune her out, answering her questions when she could, but making sure to remain as cryptic and mysterious as possible, at least until everyone was together; she didn't want to have to explain more than once. A content smile on her face, Namine glanced over at her sister.

It was time for the final show.

o-o-o

Sora grunted in pain as he hit the dirt, sliding for a moment before pouncing back to his feet, skidding the rest of the way. Dusting himself off, he grumbled, "Geez, what's that tail made of? Steel?" He'd attempted to flank Hope Ender while Cloud kept it busy, but he hadn't counted on the Heartless dragon's tail swatting him out of the air. With a roar Hope Ender stood to it's full height, seemingly ignoring Cloud's continued assault, and began charging dark energy in it's chest-hole like Sora remembered the Darksides doing. "Cloud, watch out!"

The blonde soldier took the hint, leaping back moments before his previous position, as well as everything within ten feet of it, was consumed by dark energy. With another roar, Hope Ender took to the sky. Glancing over at the recovering Sora, Cloud remarked dryly, "I thought you said you'd fought a dragon before."

Sora just shrugged. "More serpent, less lizard. And we had little tornadoes to get us into the air courtesy of the planet's guardians." Grunting sourly, he added, "I'm getting mighty sick of having to wait for that stupid lizard to land."

"Then why don't we go up there and get him?"

Turning to Cloud with a raised eyebrow, Sora started to ask, "And how are we going to..." He trailed off as he felt darkness pooling up in Cloud's body, moments before a massive midnight black demon wing erupted from Cloud's back, starting just beyond the pauldron on his left shoulder. He could also hear a second, smaller ripping sound as the fingers of Cloud's left glove tore open, freeing the metallic golden claws his fingers had become.

"You are the one who taught me, Sora, that I could use the darkness, while still living in the light." Exhaling softly, and giving Sora an amused smirk at the stunned look on the teen's face, Cloud remarked, "What, your darkness form can't do this?"

The Keyblade Master shook his head, replying amusedly, "No. I can phase through the ground, but I'm basically ground-bound. However, _this_ form **can** fly. Light!" With a brilliant flash of light, Sora changed into Final Form, his two Ultima Weapon keyblades spinning behind him, as he floated a good half-foot from the ground. Taking to the sky, he glanced back down at Cloud and asked, "You coming?"

Snarling as it noticed it's air advantage was now gone, Hope Ender soared higher into the sky, putting more distance between itself and those who would destroy it, and roared once more as it began gathering blue energy in it's open mouth, the Heartless' eyes glowing a similar colour. It took until Sora and Cloud were halfway to it before the attack was ready, when Hope Ender leaned it's head down, and fired a massive blue pillar of energy straight down at them.

"Oh shit!" Sora exclaimed, directing both keyblades in front of him as he added, "Reflectaga!" The hexagonal barrier shimmered into existence in front of the spinning keyblades mere seconds before the tower of energy slammed into it, and while, for now, it was a stalemate, Sora knew that before the dragon ran out of power, Sora would lose the fight to maintain both his flight, and his barrier; both of those spelled trouble with what was bearing down on them. "Any more plans?"

Floating slightly below him, and under the protection of his Reflect barrier, Cloud quipped, "I had the last one. Isn't it your turn now?"

A grin on his face as an idea came to him like the veritable lightning strike, Sora asked, "Reckon you could muscle your way through that beam with enough speed behind you?" When he saw Cloud nod, he explained, "When I drop back, I want you to get above my keyblades, and prepare for launch."

When Sora seemed to slip downwards, his eyes screwed shut as he willed his Reflect barrier to stay where it was, Cloud wasted no time, gliding above the keyblade master and resting both feet on the suddenly-stationary keyblades, holding his sword before him as though he were going to Sonic Blade upwards; which he might very well have been preparing to do. Cloud didn't flinch as the keyblades edged higher, until the tip of his sword passed through the barrier. His eyes snapping open, Sora forced his keyblades higher, shouting, "Fire!" as he simultaneously dropped the barrier.

The keyblade lift was enough to get Cloud past the Reflect barrier half a second before the concussive force was released, launching Cloud upwards at near supersonic speed. Gritting his teeth as he forced his sword not to waver, Cloud carved a path clear through the massive beam, only to find Hope Ender now bearing down on him, mouth opened as if to eat him whole. Leaping off the keyblades and using his wing to steer, he dodged just above the dragon's head, spinning his sword and sinking it into the Heartless' neck, before soaring further skyward and carving the Heartless in half, nose to tail.

As the two halves of the decaying dragon fell on either side of him, Sora willed his keyblades back, the two weapons once again spinning behind his back; without them as foci, it was actually remarkably hard to even remain hovering, he'd quickly found. As he floated up to Cloud's level, he saw the blonde soldier had been joined by Rinoa, and a dark demon-like being that could only be Vincent, if Sora's senses weren't lying to him.

Chaos-Vincent merely glanced at Cloud's wing and left arm before raising an eyebrow in query. Cloud just shrugged slightly, remarking, "I figured you'd be flattered."

Laughing slightly, Sora peered down at Kairi and Aerith, feeling the massive Light spell nearing completion. Looking between Cloud and Vincent, the teen voiced something all three men were thinking: "Maybe we should stay up here until they're done."

o-o-o

When Aerith had pulled her aside and told her that she needed her help to cast a level of White Magic that was well beyond even her own capabilities, Kairi had been more than flattered; after all, what she wanted to do most in this world other than be with Sora and Namine was to protect them. When told that this help would mean she would have to miss the fight around her, Kairi had been initially disappointed that not only would she miss fighting herself, she wouldn't even get to see Sora and Namine in action, but she took heart in the fact that, if she asked nicely enough, Namine might show her exactly what happened.

The two girls had knelt down on the rough ground, facing each other, with their hands interlocked with each other, Kairi's right in Aerith's left, and vice versa. Eyes closed, Kairi had tried to focus on following Aerith's instructions, on feeling the magical energy flow in through one arm, pass through her heart, and back out the other arm into Aerith, but focus was hard to come by with the mass of distractions around her.

The sounds of battle weren't the only distracting sounds though. She could **feel** the oppressive darkness; feel it pulsing every time the sounds around her informed her of one of the greater Heartless using one of their special abilities; feel it surge whenever one of the lesser Heartless were slain, before ebbing again as a new Heartless appeared. Kairi knew now why there seemed no end to the Heartless army - with this darkness everywhere, for every so many they killed, more were 'born'.

Though she couldn't see it, she could feel the glowing ball of Light energy form between her and Aerith, feel it gain strength with each circuit through both their hearts, but it wasn't enough; the darkness from the five greater Heartless was too strong, and even together, there was not enough light to push back that darkness. However, one by one, the greater Heartless were being slain, and with each one felled, the darkness' grip on the world was lessened. Finally, as Hope Ender fell, hope rose.

Their eyelids sliding open, the two girls could see the eyes of the other glowing a bright white. As one, the two declared "Holyja!" and the bright light between them was released, a massive dome of energy expanding at rapid speeds. The light washed over the battlefield, sweeping away the few straggler Heartless left, and purging the lingering darkness. For all it's build-up, the spell was over in mere seconds, but with it's conclusion, so too was the battle over.

The exhausted Kairi pushed herself to her feet just in time to catch the excited Namine, Sora swooping down to hug the redhead from behind. As the congratulations and war stories began between the group of friends, the three keybearers tuned them out, simply enjoying this moment of closeness. Radiant Garden was safe now, if only for a while longer. And with the fading adrenaline, came a realisation about the army they had defeated, one that chilled them to the core.

The darkness in the Heartless felt like that in Sora. The darkness of Hades. 'The battle is ours,' Kairi mused, hugging Namine tighter, and feeling Sora do the same to her, 'but this war is far from over.'

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Author's Notes

(1) For those who follow the Final Fantasy series and might be surprised by Namine using this technique, yes, Sora does at one point learn Zantestuken in Kingdom Hearts; well, in Final Mix anyway. True, he actually learns this move _after_ becoming a Heartless, but Namine took his memories apart while he was in Castle Oblivion, so she could've easily filled in the missing gaps between then and now while she was doing so. Besides, all those techniques he learned had to go somewhere.

I went with 'Those Who Fight Further' for the chapter title because it's boss battle music, and fits the theme of the chapter. I would've preferred to get boss battle music from Kingdom Hearts rather than the Final Fantasy VIII one I used, but none of them sounded right, so here we are.

In other news, I probably should've had this chapter out days ago, but I got distracted. I almost forgot to upload it today as well, but, here we are.


	11. A Good Other

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 10 - A Good Other

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

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_I bet it's not every day you meet your twin. Too shocked to speak?_

_Just because you're real doesn't mean you're better! We share the same body and the same talents. There is one easy way to tell us apart, though. Know what that is? Unlike you, I'm not afraid of anything._

_You ARE a coward. You're afraid of the dark! The darkness inside you scares you witless. But I'M different. I embrace the darkness. I can make it do whatever I want. In other words... I can wipe the floor with you!_

_"I'm me," he says. It must be nice, being real. I thought by finding some new strength I could be someone, someone who's not you! But nothing changes... I'm still just empty! Everything about me is borrowed. As long as you're around, I'll never be anything better than a shadow!_

_So...this is the end. Figures. But I'm not afraid. Good riddance to an artificial life._

_What happens when someone who's not real dies? Where will my heart go?_

Riku sighed sadly, forcing the memories from his head; Castle Oblivion was a memory best left forgotten. Adjusting his black cloak despite the oppressive heat around him, the mauve-haired teen raised one hand to shield his eyes from the sun, casting his eyes around him. His Corridor of Darkness had taken him to the middle of the desert, a sandstone city in sight. The city of Agrabah, home of the sixth Princess of Heart, Jasmine.

Heaving another sigh, and making sure his hood covered his face, Riku headed towards the city with a heavy heart. While Belle had been quite easy to convince to come to Disney Castle, Jasmine, he knew, would be quite a challenge. Not only did that stupid bird Iago know that he used to work for Maleficent, thanks to the witch's dealings with Jafar, Jasmine herself knew, as he had been the one to come and collect her after Jafar failed to stop Sora.

"Just great," Riku grumbled to himself, "Even if I manage to keep a low enough profile to actually _see_ Jasmine, the second she recognizes me she's going to call in the guards and have me thrown in a cell. If I'm lucky." The results of being unlucky were best left unsaid, but involved 'phenomenal cosmic power'.

As soon as the teen reached the city he dropped his head slightly, weaving his way through the bustling morning markets that lines the street, heading towards the towering palace that filled the horizon. He kept his gaze straight ahead, ignoring the imaginary eyes he could feel boring into his back; he repeated silently to himself 'It's all in my head. I've been paranoid ever since I first fell into darkness.'

Before too long, he reached the final archway before the palace, where a pair of burley guards stopped him. Raising a hand before either could speak, he stated evenly, "I am an emissary of the ruler of Disney Castle, here to see Princess Jasmine on official business. The princess would be less than pleased were I to be delayed."

The two stammered out apologies one leading him towards the front doors of the palace, directing one guard within to escort him to a meeting room, and another to fetch the princess. 'One hurdle down,' Riku thought, with a slight sigh of relief, 'Now, let's hope she'll listen to me.'

o-o-o

Xurik scowled to himself, running a hand through his silver locks as he marched through the halls of the Castle That Never Was. The attack on Radiant Garden had failed, spectacularly so, thanks to the small army of friends that had come to Sora's aid. All those Heartless destroyed, all that effort wasted, and Sora had come out of this conflict stronger than ever, thanks to the host of new allies he had. He would need time to rethink his plan, if he ever hoped to destroy Sora's heart.

He had learnt, if nothing else, that he could not take the fight to Sora. When the 'keyblade Master' was forced on the defensive, he could dig in his heels, put his back to the wall, and survive well past when most people would have lost. No, if he wanted to defeat Sora, it would have to be on _his_ terms; he had to force Sora to bring the fight to him. And if he was going to do that, he would need to have to find bait for his trap.

"Those girls," he remarked to himself. They were the most obvious bait; Sora had already proven he would risk his own life to protect them. "But how to capture them..."

His musing was interrupted by the determined stride approaching him, followed by the stern and irate voice of Maleficent declaring, "You stupid boy! Do you have any idea what you have done?"

"Freed more hearts to repair your precious Kingdom Hearts?" Xurik replied dryly; he had observed on the way in that the giant gaping hole in the heart-shaped moon was less giant and gaping. "Isn't that why you gave me command over your Heartless forces in the first place?"

"You imbecile!" The witch shouted irately, "Thanks to your incompetence, Radiant Garden is now shielded against the Heartless!" When the Nobody just looked at her in shock, she explained, "For months now I have been sending minor skirmishes of Heartless to that world, to reinforce the darkness in it's heart. Now, due to your actions, the protectors of that world have managed to cleanse the world's heart of all darkness, protecting it from my scrying, and denying the Heartless access to that world."

Xurik blinked slightly, asking, "Then how come Sora isn't affected, with all his new darkness?" Before she could answer, he waved her concerns away lazily, remarking, "Whatever. The whims of light and dark mean nothing to the Nobodies. When next we have business there, they can handle it. Besides, fighting Sora there is pointless now; let him have his little sanctuary world. If we want to destroy him, we have to bring him here."

Maleficent sneered. "And how, pray tell, do you plan on doing that?"

Before he could reply, a new voice remarked coolly, "I believe I may be of assistance."

Xurik spun towards the new voice, Way to the Dusk flashing into his hands, as Maleficent raised her staff, glowing with a baleful green fire, and announced, "Who dares trespass in my dominion?"

There was one word Xurik could think of to describe the being that walked out of the shadows: powerful. His aqua hair was oddly styled, looking like he had two long horns trailing down his back to his hips, and a third shorter 'horn' in the front, curving down from his forehead to under his chin. He wore red-and-black, open-chest robes, with a wide green sash tied around his waist. In his right hand he carried a massive staff, with a head made of some kind of red metal, shaped like some kind of demonic glyph.

The man halted a few feet away from the pair, holding his staff out to one side as he dropped into a deep bow, intoning, "Apologies Great Mistress of the Dark. My name is Seymour. I have sought you out because I wish to lend my wisdom and my magic to your cause."

"Why?" Maleficent was nothing if not suspicious.

"You seek Kingdom Hearts," the strange man replied, "I seek an end to the spiral, and I believe that end is Kingdom Hearts."

Maleficent scowled, green flames erupting around her. "Kingdom Hearts is MINE!"

"You misunderstand me," Seymour remarked, bowing once more, "I care not who controls Kingdom Hearts, merely to spread it's influence across all worlds." That calmed Maleficent's rage. "The worlds, divided, are filled with suffering and sorrow, caught in a spiral of death. Light returns, and new hearts are born to mourn the lost, before light ebbs and darkness returns, to wash away more. Only in death is there true release from pain and suffering. I seek to bring sweet release to all life, and blanket all worlds in eternal darkness."

Maleficent smiled coldly, and, heart or no heart, Xurik couldn't help the shiver that went down his spine.

o-o-o

"Wow, this room is so glamorous! Much nicer than anything back in Castle Oblivion," Namine exclaimed excitedly, examining everything before giggling in girlish glee. "I feel like a princess."

"Technically you are," Kairi remarked with amusement, though she was equally amazed by the room. "I mean, if I'm a princess, and you're my sister, that makes you a princess too."

"Oh yeah," Namine giggled again, flopping down on the massive bed beside her sister. After the battle was over, the three off-worlders had realised pretty quickly that they would need a new place to lay low, now that the Heartless had found them out in the canyon. It was Yuffie who had suggested that they come stay in the castle, explaining that the only people who ever really came inside currently were the Restoration Committee members who'd chosen to live there, and the staff who worked for them, the latter of which who were paid to keep quiet about who was staying there. Yuffie had even insisted that they take the suite Kairi once lived in, over a decade ago.

Still smiling, Namine slid off the bed, heading over to the bags sitting against the nearby dresser. Thankfully, before the ninja girl escorted them to their room, the girls (Aerith, Tifa and Rinoa included) had all had the chance to go shopping, so Namine dug through the bags searching for the most important purchase: her new sketchbook. Sitting down in a nearby chair, Namine dug through her newly purchased pencils, finding the one she wanted, before beginning a quick sketch of the massive bed, and her sister still lying on it.

As her hands worked, Namine let her mind wander back to the battle, and to the new powers she had displayed in it. Somehow, she had been able to mimic Rinoa, even to the point of using magic spells that she not only didn't know, but were also way above her current ability; if she could barely cast a Fire spell, there was no way she would be able to cast Firaga, and yet, she had. However, the only spells of Rinoa's she could cast were the one's she'd seen Rinoa herself casting: Firaga, Firaja, Blizzaja, and Aeroja.

Drawing on autopilot, she remembered back to her days in Castle Oblivion, specifically, to the time Sora had arrived, and the things she'd been forced to do. She remembered changing Kairi's thalassa-shell good luck charm into a paopu charm, and doing the same with one of the cards they had made from Sora's memory; the good luck charm that had been given to the Riku Replica, who she had been forced to give, and then destroy, false memories of being the real Riku. She didn't know what happened to him after he had protected her against Maraluxia, but somehow, she knew he was gone.

Remembering back to all the awful things she had done, she felt the old doubts about her worthiness of having a relationship with anyone, let alone Sora, return full force. Setting aside her sketchbook with a heavy sigh, Namine heard herself ask, "Kairi, are you _really_ okay with all of this? About sharing me with Sora? I know you said yes before, but everything was pretty emotional, and... I mean... I just don't want you to regret this, and wind up hating me."

Rolling over slightly to face her sister, Kairi gave her a wan smile. "Namine, do we _really_ have to go over this again? I **don't** regret us all being together." After a moment's thought, she asked, "**You** aren't are you?"

"No!" Namine exclaimed hurriedly, before blushing. "It's just that..." She sighed slightly. "I know how much you love Sora. And yet, you accepted sharing him with me so quickly. I guess... I guess I'm just scared that you'll change your mind and want Sora all to yourself. I don't want to wind up alone again."

"Well that's just not going to happen," Kairi stated firmly, sitting up properly. "Firstly, Namine, even if I wasn't sharing Sora with you, you are my sister, and as my sister, that means you are stuck with me. Secondly, I read something a long time ago that said, 'no man should come between sisters'. You are right, I do love Sora, but so do you, and I love you too. I want you to be happy, and I don't want our love for Sora to drive a wedge between us, so the most logical choice is for us to share Sora. You deserve to be happy just as much as I do, maybe more."

Blushing in her usual cute fashion, with an equally cute smile on her face, Namine whispered, "Thank you."

Sliding off the bed, Kairi padded over to give her sister a hug. "It's like I said this morning Nam," the redhead whispered, "You're stuck with us. It doesn't matter what you did before, or what you used to be, Sora and I both love you, as you do us." Smiling, she added, "It's up to the two of us to protect him. You up for it?"

Tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, Namine nodded, replying happily, "Yeah, I guess we'd better. He's so hopeless without us isn't he?"

o-o-o

"Wow, this is a nice place," Sora remarked, gazing around the spacious sitting room, "Much nicer than Merlin's place."

"Yeah," Squall nodded, "Once word got around that Radiant Garden was being restored, a lot of the people who fled years ago began drifting back, including the rest of our friends. We knew Merlin's place wasn't going to be enough for the Restoration Committee for too much longer, so when Tifa opened this place, it seemed like a perfect match."

"Tifa owns Seventh Heaven?" Sora asked curiously.

The older man nodded. "First thing she did once she dragged Cloud back here was to open this bar. With so many of us here now, and with the world as rebuilt as it is, most of us have side jobs to keep us busy; nowadays, it's more just an excuse for us all to meet up and talk once a week. Barret's the only one who's really full time anymore, but then, he's in construction by trade. A lot of us don't have much to do with the Committee at all unless there's combat work that needs to be done; Vincent and Yuffie are prime examples of that."

"So do you all actually live here?"

"No, only Tifa and Cloud live here," Squall replied with a shake of his head, "We've each got our own places. Well, except Red and Vincent, who live out in the caverns, and Yuffie, who claimed a room in the castle as soon as it was habitable and wouldn't accept any reasons she shouldn't."

"That's because she should be there," Cid's voice drawled, preceding the man up the stairs. "You may be too young to remember it boy, but before Maleficent came, her father was an advisor to the king, and to Ansem the Wise after that, so she actually lived in the castle."

The mop of black hair preceding the man, Zack commented with some sarcasm, "As fascinating as your history lessons are Cid, I don't think that's why we were all called here."

"No, it's not," Squall replied, doing a quick head count to make sure everyone had shown up before turning to Sora and adding, "Cloud told us that you and Kairi were on-world again and needed sanctuary, but he wouldn't go into any detail as to why. I think it's time you gave us an explanation, and I'd appreciate it if you started with why we found you in the centre of the largest Heartless invasion force Radiant Garden has seen since we tore down Maleficent's castle."

Smiling a bit weakly, Sora began. "Well, I'll tell you what I can, but there's some of it I don't know myself. The short version is this: about three months back, I ran afoul of Hades while on a mission Mickey sent me on. Rather than killing me though, Hades imprisoned me, and used me as the subject of a series of experiments, using the anguished souls of the damned to enhance the darkness in my heart. Two months in, he succeeded, forging himself a corrupted keyblade, and sending me on a spiralling path down into darkness, before I managed to find a way to shield my heart. Now I can wield that darkness, but Hades has had a month's head start spreading his influence. I don't know why that army was here, other than to guess they were for me, but what I can tell you is this: they reeked of Hades' new strain of Darkness."

Cloud spoke up, adding, "With the information Sora gave me, we surmised that Hades is the one behind the attacks on the outer worlds. We suspect he's building himself an army."

Something of a grin on his face, Zack added, "Well, if those are his new Heartless, it shouldn't be too hard. I mean, those Neoshadows go down quick. Those others though... I'm not sure _what_ they are, I've never seen any like them before."

"I have," Squall remarked grimly. "Darkballs and Invincibles. However..."

As he trailed off, Sora finished the thought for him. "They haven't been seen since I sealed the Door to Darkness."

That killed Zack's grin; everyone knew, from stories if not first-hand knowledge, just how strong the Heartless had become when the Door to Darkness was opened. Barret was the next to speak, remarking in his usual rough drawl, "I ain't ever seen no Heartless actin' like they were. Cowards flee as soon as fights turn against 'em, but all them Heartless fought to the death."

Sora blinked suddenly, taking a moment to decode what Barret has said, before commenting, "Hey, he's right. With a mass of Heartless that big, there's always a few that flee. If nothing else, they flee when the, I guess you could call them 'leader-class' Heartless show up. And there were six 'leaders' too; I've never seen more than two show up at once, and the one time I have fought two, they were a tag-team that that fool Pete sent after me."

Smacking his forehead, Zack exclaimed suddenly, "Gah, of course, how could I be so stupid... That guy watching the fight from up on the cliff must've been controlling them."

"What guy on the cliff?" Squall asked.

"Well, I only got a quick look at him before he disappeared into this black swirling portal thing, and I was in a bit of a hurry at the time-"

"Because you were late," Cloud interjected.

"...Yes, well, anyway," Zack shrugged, "From what I saw, I'd guess he's a bit taller than Sora here, with silver hair, and a black coat. Oh! And he had this wicked-looking red-and-black sword, but it had this extra bit on one side."

"A keyblade!" Sora bolted to his feet, "That sounds just like Riku. But... why would he be watching the fight... He can't have gone back to working for the Darkness again, can he..."

"Maybe Hades took his form," Vincent suggested, "Or, perhaps, he can control him through the Darkness in his heart."

Glancing around at the assembled men, Cloud summed up feelings on that theory with, "If he can, then we're all in trouble."

Walking over to the nearby window, Sora glanced up at the sky, sending out a silent prayer. 'Riku, please be okay.'

o-o-o

'What could be taking them so long?' Riku thought to himself, pacing up and down the length of the meeting room from equal parts worry and fear. 'Have they realised who I am already? Did she decided to round up as many guards as she can?'

As if purely to put him out of his misery, he heard a female voice, drawing closer, and assumedly speaking to someone with her, say, "There's really no need for this. An envoy from Disney Castle is _not_ going to hurt me."

"I'm sorry Jasmine," A second, male voice replied, "But after the last couple of times we've had outsiders come to Agrabah, you'll forgive me for being cautious."

"Oh come on Aladdin," the female voice, Jasmine, paused in it's approach. "You like Sora. In fact, without his help, we probably wouldn't be together."

The male voice, Aladdin, laughed, replying, "Okay, you got me there, but you can't say he doesn't bring a whole lot of trouble with him."

"That's true," Jasmine laughed, before the two continued their approach to the meeting room. Striding in like the royal she was, Jasmine called out, "Okay, so what's this matter of such importance an emissary of Disney Castle would-" Jasmine stopped suddenly, her eyes widening in equal parts fear and anger, before exclaiming, "YOU!" Beside her, Aladdin drew his scimitar, pushing the princess behind him.

"Whoa! Calm down, wait a minute!" Riku exclaimed, holding his hands up in what he hoped was a peaceful manner, "Just, let me say my piece and I will leave, peacefully, no need for any trouble." Taking a deep breath, he started, "Now, I know we... don't exactly have good history-"

"You KIDNAPPED me!" Jasmine exclaimed.

Riku continued as though she hadn't said anything, "But I'm working for King Mickey now. I was in a bad place back then, but Sora beat some sense into me, and King Mickey's been helping me ever since." When Aladdin just tightened his grip on his scimitar, Riku sighed, added, "Look, I knew you wouldn't believe me, and I told King Mickey such, so I had him provide me with a little proof." Keeping one hand visible, he carefully reached into his pocket with the other, pulling out a folded piece of paper, emblazoned with the king's seal. Rather than offering it to either of them, knowing they wouldn't take it from him, he placed it on the ground, then stepped back about ten feet.

Keeping his eyes on Riku, Aladdin edged forward, grabbing the paper and bringing it back to the princess. Breaking it open, Jasmine quickly scanned the note, her features softening slightly, before she placed a hand on Aladdin's shoulder, nodding once when he looked back to her. As the former street-rat lowered his sword, Jasmine declared, "Alright then. I still don't trust you, but I will listen to what you have to say. For now."

Riku nodded, accepting the terms, and quite frankly, thankful he'd gotten that much. "A new Darkness has surfaced, more dangerous than Maleficent ever was. The information we have is spotty at best, but close to a dozen worlds have fallen to this new Darkness already... As has the keyblade Master." Pausing as the two exclaimed their shock at this news, before continuing, "King Mickey believes that the being behind this new Darkness will be going after Kingdom Hearts, and while normally Disney Castle refrains from meddling in the affairs of other worlds, Mickey believe this situation dire enough to warrant a breach of protocol, so he's sent me to bring the Princesses of Heart to Disney Castle for their protection."

"How many have answered the summons?" Jasmine asked.

"You're the last," Riku replied, smiling weakly, "I... was afraid to come here, after... you know, last time."

"So the other six are at the castle?"

Riku couldn't help but wince. "Uh... no. When I said you were the last... I meant you were the last we could find."

"Kairi." Jasmine remarked; it wasn't a question

"Sora has her, doesn't he?"

Though Aladdin had phrased it as such, Riku knew that wasn't really a question either. Still, he answered, with a heavy heart, "Yes, Sora has her, and we can't find him. King Mickey believes that Sora has fallen into Darkness, and will be using the friendships he's cultivated to get Kingdom Hearts."

"But you don't believe it." Aladdin remarked; again, not a question.

Riku shook his head, "I don't believe Sora is truly lost, no. But I _do_ believe this new Darkness, a Darkness that could swallow a light as bright as Sora's, is a real threat."

"I'll go," Jasmine stated firmly, before turning to reassure Aladdin.

Riku just turned away, sighing. 'Strange,' thought to himself, 'how much easier the lie gets each telling.'

o-o-o

"What are you doing here?"

Seymour looked up from the bundle of notes before him to see Xurik walking into the lab, a scowl on his face. The enigmatic man's calming smile ever-present on his face, he replied, "As, the young Nobody; Xurik, was it? Maleficent has given me free run of the castle, on the proviso that I can produce results-"

"No, I meant what are you doing here, in this castle, on this world, and in this Realm?" Xurik cut him off sharply. "You've got Maleficent believing that you plan to 'kill the Light' and usher in a new glorious era of Darkness, but I know that's a crock of shit; you were just telling Maleficent what she wanted to hear. So: what are you doing here?"

Seymour smiled a little wider, still radiating that aura of calm, before replying, "You are correct; I have no intention on creating Maleficent's kingdom of Darkness. I seek not to kill only the Light, but the Darkness as well, to bring about an end to all things, such that only Nothingness remains."

"And now you're just saying what you think _I_ want to hear," Xurik scowled, "Cut the bullshit, I'm not interested in-"

"Oh, but you ARE interested in what I have to say," Seymour interrupted smoothly, "Else you would have informed Maleficent already, or, at least, brought some Heartless or Nobodies to fight me with." He waved a hand absently, as if to point out it was just the two of them.

Xurik's scowl deepened. "Oh don't tempt me. I swear, if you don't answer-"

"What if I told you I had already created a plan that could serve ALL of our goals at the same time?"

Xurik took a step back, eyes widening a fraction in shock. "You don't know what my-"

"You seek the destruction of the Keyblade Master, this, 'Sora'. You feel he has taken everything from you, leaving you as this hollow shell, and so, in return, seek to take everything from him, to take his spirit, and, when he has nothing left, to take his life."

The Nobody took another step back. "How-"

"Fortunately," Seymour continued, still as smooth as silk on ice, "This castle's former owners have given us everything we need to make all our dreams come true. Well," he smiled slightly, "Almost everything. For this plan to work, I will need your help." Plucking a piece of paper from the pile, he slid it across towards Xurik.

His eyes quickly scanning the document, Xurik felt a smile come to his face, as a simulated emotion with all the hallmarks of glee welled up inside him. Nodding once, Xurik remarked, "What do you need from me?"

o-o-o

"Hey Namine, I just thought of something." When her recently-acquired sister looked up from her current sketch at the redhead, Kairi continued, "Well, you can turn yourself into different people, and you can turn objects into different objects-"

"I _could_," Namine interrupted, "I haven't tested if I still can."

Kairi nodded, "Right, well, I was wondering: can you turn other people into different people?"

The young blonde blinked, as though the thought had never occurred to her. She set her pencils aside as she mulled over the question, before a cute little smile crossed her face as she asked, "Hey, can I borrow your Floral Fallal keychain?"

"Uh, sure," Kairi replied, digging around in her pocket for the paopu-shaped keychain, and tossing it to her sister, "What'd you want it for?"

"A test," the girl replied cryptically, enclosing the keychain between her cupped hands and closing her eyes. "A test that, if it works, should prove to be a neat trick." There were a few minutes of silence, as the blonde concentrated on her task, before opening her eyes, smiling brightly, and throwing the charm back to her sister. "There. Equip it to your keyblade, let's see if it worked."

Kairi blinked. "Oh...kay." Summoning her keyblade in a flash of light, Kairi disconnected the Oathkeeper chain, observing at the back of her mind that her keyblade didn't change back to it's original form on it's own and making a note to ask Sora about it later, before connecting the paopu keychain in her hand. The bright light that consumed, and changed, her keyblade, she expected; what she didn't expect was the bright light that flashed before her own eyes. Turning to her sister, she asked, "What was that?" Then held a hand to her throat when she realised the voice that had come out of her mouth was not her own.

"It worked!" Namine exclaimed, grabbing Kairi's arm and dragging her towards the mirror against the wall. "Look, look!" Kairi did look, and what she saw in the mirror were two Namine's, dressed identically, with one holding the other's wrist, and the second holding a keyblade. "And now, I work a little of my magic, and..." With a flash of light, the keyblade-less Namine vanished, and was replaced with Kairi. Letting go of her sister's wrist, Namine added, "Try dismissing your keyblade, see if the form sticks."

With a nod, Kairi released her weapon, and both girls smiled brightly when the Namine in the mirror didn't change back into Kairi. Summoning her keyblade again, she switched keychains to Oathkeeper again, watching as her own form returned, before switching back to Floral Fallal, changing back to Namine. "So, I equip your keychain, I become you. I equip mine, I become me." Putting a hand to her chin, 'Namine' mused, "I wonder if you could make charms for other people..."

'Kairi' shrugged. "Maybe, but I don't think so. I mean, you and I do have this soul-deep link." Pausing a moment to examine 'herself' in the mirror, she smiled slightly and added, "You know, there was something else I'd love to try."

o-o-o

"So Sora, what's with the girl?" Zack asked, and judging by the looks on everyone else's faces, they wanted to know too. "I mean, Kairi I remember, but I don't remember a 'Namine'."

"She's Kairi's sister," Sora replied with a shrug, as if that answered everything.

The other men glanced at one another, before Cid replied, "Uh, try again. Kairi has no sister."

"**Had**," Sora corrected, shrugging again. "Technically, Namine is her former Nobody."

"But how could Kairi have had a Nobody?" Squall asked. "She's a Princess of Heart. She has no darkness, so she can't become a Heartless, ergo can't form a Nobody."

"It's... complicated." When the Islander saw the expectant looks on all their faces, he explained, "When Destiny Islands fell into darkness, Kairi's heart fled her body, to prevent the darkness from claiming it, and migrated to the nearest host: me; that's why I was seeing Kairi everywhere. When I used the Keyblade of Stolen Hearts to free Kairi's heart from my body, I consequently freed my own, turning myself into a Heartless, and creating a Nobody, named Roxas, who was found by the Organization, and made number thirteen. However, because a second heart left my body, a second Nobody was formed, using Kairi as the template. That Nobody was Namine."

"Most unusual," Vincent remarked, his cape still windblown despite being inside. "If Namine was once a Nobody, how did she come to acquire a heart?"

Sora opened his mouth, fully prepared to answer, when his mind was bombarded with a sudden barrage of... something he couldn't put into words; an indescribable, overwhelming sensation that saturated his very being. The first wave had barely passed when he was struck by a second wave. By the third wave, however, he'd had time to prepare himself, and he quickly realised just what the sensation felt like.

"Uh, kid, you okay?" Cid drawled, unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth.

Blinking rapidly as memory resurfaced as to where he was, Sora stammered hastily, "Uh, yeah, I'm fine, everything's fine, but I have to go. Like, right now."

Standing up and grabbing the hilt of his sword reflexively, Cloud asked, "What's the emergency?"

Summoning his keyblades, Sora lined the two up, side by side, before releasing them, and the two blades, suspended in mid air, rotated horizontally, before one rose up, and one sunk down, a shimmering portal forming between them. "No emergency," Sora replied, a grin on his face, "Just that, if what I think is happening **is** happening, I really want to see this." Saying no more, Sora leapt between his keyblades, and they, like the portal, vanished in a flash of light a split second later.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Notes:

Gods, it's been _forever_ since I updated one of my stories... At this point, I could come up with some excuse as to why, but the simple truth is I've been so busy with other things that I just haven't had the time. I've also decided that I'm not going to update Disturbance again until I have at least two of the final three written, because the one I do have doesn't feel complete enough to post on it's own. Hence, I've updated this story instead.

Now, for those of you who may not be aware, the new character I brought in Seymour, is from Final Fantasy X. I've added him to the villain's side mainly as a counterbalance for Rinoa being a powerful mage. As for what he's planning, well, you'll just have to wait and see. It's actually one of the first long-term plans I've thought up for this story so far, so, it should be good.

Until next time, ja ne.


	12. Darkness in Zero

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 11 - Darkness in Zero

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

* * *

_Namine hijacked the data herself. Look what she's done now... She's totally beyond my control!_

_It doesn't matter. As long as Namine accomplishes her goal, we needn't worry about what befalls Roxas._

_Namine's encounter with Roxas put his heart in contact with Kairi's. And that, in turn, affected Sora. You see?_

_She wasn't born like other Nobodies. She can interfere with the hearts and memories of Sora and those aligned with him._

_I could tell you... But first, perhaps you could tell me your true name?_

_It's an honour, Ansem!_

The words of the man he had known only by the moniker of DiZ echoed loudly through Riku's ears, before he forced them away, focusing instead on the sun just peaking over the horizon. Watching the dawn's first light shining down on the fields of crystal in the area the locals called The Great Maw, he could easily see how this world came to be known as Radiant Garden. Having been destroyed by Maleficent, the teen knew the world would never be as it once was, but the deep scars torn into this world by the darkness did nothing to hide it's beauty.

It was fitting, in a way, that the memories of his time spent in Twilight Town with DiZ returned now, and not just because this world had once been DiZ's home, back when he was still using his original name of Ansem. It was here, on this world, that Ansem's apprentice Xehanort stole everything from him, even his name, leaving him naught but the thirst for revenge that had consumed him. And it was here, just a year and a half ago, that Riku himself had lost everything to the same being, now calling himself Ansem, for the petty revenge that has filled his own heart.

He and DiZ were much alike, he knew, and not just because they had a part of their hearts that referred to itself as Ansem. Both of them had given in to the darkness for the power it promised them, to get the revenge they felt they deserved, and both, in the end, had tried to use that power for the greater good. However, while DiZ was now gone, destroyed by his final attempt for atonement, an attempt that had returned Riku to his true form, Riku himself lived on, forced every day to endure the memory of his sins.

"And today," he mused to himself, thinking back on his briefing with King Mickey, "I have been asked to make another."

o-o-o

"Your majesty, you can't be serious!"

"I'm afraid I am serious Riku," the mouse king replied solemnly, looking up briefly from the massive book on the table he was reading, "You know it has to be done."

"No, quite frankly, I don't," Riku argued. "Whatever abilities he may have now, he's still Sora. I'm not about to kill my best friend just because you tell me to."

Riku expected Mickey to argue the point with him, as he had in the past. What he didn't expect, however, was for the mouse king to produce a folder from beneath the book he was reading and throw it across to him. As it hit the table, a handful of picture spilt out, and opening it, Riku saw there were many more inside. Flicking through them, the teen saw that every picture featured the same thing: a completely black Sora, blue highlights on his clothing, with shadowy smoke trailing off him, and clawed hands. In some, he was sinking his claws into Heartless or Nobodies, others standing over the bodies of the same as they faded into darkness, and in a small handful, he had gone so far as to tear the enemy apart. And they were dated an average of five months ago.

"They call it Anti-Form," Mickey remarked, inclining his head towards the photographs. "Jiminy took those while they were travelling last. I've questioned him, as well as Donald and Goofy, and they all agree on a few things. This 'Anti-Form' is something Sora became occasionally when trying to use his Drive forms in high-stress or high-anger situations. It was savage, feral, ripping into all enemies that came it's way with a ferocity almost never seen outside of the top predators in the wildest jungles of all the worlds. They speculated that he became this because of the darkness already in his heart from his time as a Heartless. And this was before he was affected by Hades' 'Deeper Darkness'."

Riku, for once, didn't have a response to this. Sora had mentioned his Anti-Form in passing a while back, when discussing his travels, but to see that form in action, the savagery, was something else. "Even if I believed you, Riku," Mickey continued, "Even if, as you say, he is still Sora, how do you know that he always will be? How do you know this 'Anti-Form' won't take over him again, with much more power behind it than it ever had before? How can you say Kairi will be safe if this thing emerges?"

"Sora would never hurt Kairi," Riku countered quickly, "He would sooner kill himself than hurt her."

"And if this Anti-Form turned out to be the opposite of Sora in every way, and sought it's freedom by destroying everything Sora held dear?" This, even Riku couldn't fight. As much as he hated himself, and as much as he hated Mickey for putting him in this position, Mickey's words rang too true; if this thing was released, there was a good chance it would hurt Kairi, or worse, if it meant Sora lost his hold over it forever. "For her own safety, you need to bring her here."

"And if taking her from him sends Sora over the edge?" Riku asked. "He has dove into darkness twice before for her."

Mickey's reply was firm. "Then you know what needs to be done."

o-o-o

"What a choice," Riku grumbled to himself, "Turn on Mickey, leave Kairi here, and risk this 'Anti-Form' appearing and hurting her, or take Kairi away from him, and pretty much guarantee it shows up, looking for blood. Mine in particular."

"Sounds like you're stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place," a dry voice remarked from behind him.

Turning away from the newly risen sun, Riku found the one man he had been hoping would show up. "That I am Vincent, and I don't know how to get myself out."

"Why didn't you come to me sooner?"

Riku just shrugged helplessly. "I couldn't. This is the first chance I've had to return to the Garden, and I'm expected not to come back empty-handed."

Vincent accepted this reason with a single nod. "Explain, then, the situation that has you so trapped."

o-o-o

Deep within the Castle That Never Was, Seymour sat behind the desk that once belonged to the Nobody Vexen, studying the notes left behind by Xemnas, and Vexen himself. Despite the eternal calm that had been the man's existence for what felt like an age now, he was currently experiencing an emotion he had long forgotten: frustration. He had spent countless hours rifling through the mass of paperwork the Organization had left behind searching for the handful that had the information he needed, only to find those documents incomplete.

Setting the notes aside, the mysterious mage closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths as he worked to centre himself once more, and get his frustration under control. Hearing the door to the laboratory open, without opening his eyes Seymour called out, "Master Xurik, what can I do for you today?"

The silver-haired Nobody rolled his eyes, replying, "The bitch queen wanted me to come down here and check the progress of your pet project."

Once more, Seymour felt the rise of frustration. "You may tell the Dark Mistress that I have located the documents I needed, but my study of them has revealed a problem that will not be easily rectified."

"What's the problem?" Xurik remarked, "I know you still need me to take care of one problem, but what's the other?"

"The other problem is that in the entire history of the Organization, this experiment was only successful twice." Seymour replied, "The first success, attempted by Xemnas himself, I could never hope to replicate, because the records are incomplete."

"Incomplete?" Xurik asked, one eyebrow quirked, "These guys had records to record their records. They crossed every 't' and dotted every 'i', as if they were afraid that a single incomplete piece would invalidate everything and make the worlds forget them. How could any of their records be incomplete?"

"I do not know," Seymour answered, a hint of a frown on his otherwise calm face, "The records were not tampered with, but the information is gone, as though it never existed."

"And the second attempt?"

Shuffling through the papers again, Seymour found the report he wanted, before replying, "The second attempt, by Vexen, was only successful due to the assistance of an unusual Nobody the Organization was studying, whom they found in Castle Oblivion. A Nobody named Namine. Without her-"

"Wait, Namine?" Xurik asked, confused, "Blonde haired girl? Looks a lot like Kairi?"

"How did you know?" Seymour asked back, finally finding the photo that accompanied the report; a photo of a young blonde girl in a white dress, with a sketchbook in hand.

Examining the photo quickly, Xurik nodded. "That's her alright. She's with Sora currently."

"Then it would appear the report about her destruction was incorrect. Most fortuitous for us." Glancing up at the teen Nobody, he remarked coolly, "Be sure to capture her for me would you?"

Xurik grinned, "You don't even need to ask for that. Now, about my request..."

"Ah yes," reaching behind him, Seymour picked up a folder, holding it out to the Nobody. "This should help."

Nodding once in thanks, Xurik rolled his eyes again. "Guess I better inform the witch of what's going on," he remarked dryly, before heading out. Pausing at the door, Xurik glanced over his shoulder, asking, "Hey Seymour, what _are_ you?" At the man's questioning glance, he added, "You're not a Nobody, but I don't think you're human either, so, what are you?"

"A surprise, dear boy," Seymour smiled mysteriously. "A surprise."

o-o-o

"Sorry about yesterday guys," Sora remarked sheepishly, striding over towards the bar in Seventh Heaven; Cloud was behind it, taking over for Tifa who was out on an errand, while Squall lounged on a stool nearby. "I didn't mean to run out on you like that, but... the girls demanded my attention."

"Don't worry about it," Cloud waved him off, "The guys got most of their questions answered anyway; the important ones at least."

"Well, I still have one important question," Squall remarked. "While you, Kairi and Namine are always welcome here, as head of the Restoration Committee, and steward of Radiant Garden, I have to ask: what do you plan to do now? We all know that hiding here can only ever be a temporary solution."

"You're right," Sora nodded, "I only intended to stay here long enough to ensure Kairi could protect herself, to try and get a lead on what Hades was up to in the month's head start he had, and, if possible, to try and find a way to stop him."

"Well, the most obvious way would be to destroy his keyblade, and whatever army he has produced with it, but this may be the hardest option." Cloud pointed out. "With his status as a God or Olympus, it may actually be impossible to kill him, but maybe Hercules, or someone else on his world, may be able to lend you assistance."

"The other obvious way to defeat this new darkness would be with a powerful light," Squall added. "Maybe you should seek out the other Princesses of Heart for help."

Before Sora could thank them for the advice, Cloud suddenly interjected, "I just remembered. Vincent informed me earlier that Riku mentioned that Mickey was having him collect the Princesses, taking them to Disney Castle for 'protection' from this new darkness, and, knowing Mickey, from you."

"If the King has the Princesses, we may have a problem," Cid drawled, striding into the bar. "I just got word that Merlin bugged out. Mickey called 'im back to the castle."

Sora blinked. "What would he need Merlin's help for?"

o-o-o

Striding into the grand library of Disney Castle for the first time in what felt like years, Merlin cried out cheerfully, "Greetings Your Majesty! I believe you sent for me."

Smiling, Mickey replied, "I did old friend, I need your assistance in researching a new spell." Setting aside the book he was currently reading and hopping off the chair, he headed towards the blue-robed wizard to greet him properly. "I would've gone to see you personally, were it safe."

"Nonsense King Mickey, it's no problem," Merlin remarked, "Why, it'll do me a world of good. It feels like forever since I last truly walked these halls." Following the king over to the desk, he asked, "So, what was this spell you needed help with?"

"It's a protection spell," Mickey explained, digging through the pile of papers and books on the desk for his sheets of notes. "As we've seen in the past, not even the sanctuary of Disney Castle is immune to the forces of darkness. I seek a way to ensure my people's safety, with the future goal of spreading that safety to all the worlds."

Merlin chuckled slightly, glancing through the notes Mickey had handed him and remarking, "My, that is a lofty goal, even for you, Your Majesty." Reading the notes further, the wizened wizard commented, "My, this certainly is a powerful spell you have planned. Are you sure Master Yen Sid wouldn't be better suited towards assisting you? He is more powerful than I."

"Nonsense old friend. You are the most powerful wizard of Light in all the worlds." What Mickey left unsaid was that the main reason he didn't turn to Yen Sid for help was that he was a wizard of Twilight.

"Oh, you flatter me old friend," Merlin smiled back, continuing to read over the mouse king's motes until a sudden realisation came to him. "I say, for this spell to be of any use, you would need a monumental font of power to draw from."

"Don't worry about the power source," Mickey waved the concern away absently, "That problem is already being taken care of."

o-o-o

"I think the bigger, and scarier question, is what Mickey wants with the Princesses of Heart." Cloud pointed out.

Sora paled dramatically, remarking, "No, surely he wouldn't..."

Cloud simply nodded. "I'm afraid so."

"He wouldn't what?" Squall asked, both curious and irritated.

Cloud shook his head. "Why would anyone need all seven Princesses of Heart? Why were they all originally captured by Maleficent?" As Squall's eyes started to widen, Cloud nodded, adding, "He may be going after Kingdom Hearts."

"It makes a scary amount of sense," Sora stated a touch sourly. "The first gate to Kingdom Hearts I found, the one Maleficent was after, was in the Realm of Darkness, in the End of Worlds, the world formed from all worlds that fall into darkness; a place where darkness ruled. The second gate was in the Realm of In-Between, in the Castle That Never Was, the 'Nobody' to the 'Heartless' that was the End of Worlds. Where would it make the most sense for the Realm of Light's gate to Kingdom Hearts to be?"

"In a world of eternal light," Squall replied, the pieces falling into place. "A world built around an artefact called the Cornerstone of Light."

"Then we have to stop Mickey getting his paws on her," Cid drawled, "Where is she now?"

"I left her and Namine at the castle with Yuffie." Summoning his keyblades, Sora remarked, "I think it's past time I collected my ladies and found a new haven."

o-o-o

There was only one word Namine could think of that would sum up the majority of her day thus far: awkward. Sora had left earlier to resupply, and to finish his meeting with the Restoration Committee. It was only after he had left that she and Kairi had discovered why Yuffie had been so insistent on them moving into the Princess' former room in the castle; the kunoichi's room was right next-door. And the walls between weren't nearly as soundproof as any of the parties involved would have liked.

All through breakfast/brunch Yuffie had been blushing and shooting the two girls furtive glances, as if dying to ask for an explanation of what she had heard during the night (and a good portion of the morning...) but was too embarrassed to do so, and neither of the sisters really knew how to deal with the girl; Kairi didn't have much contact with Yuffie that she remembered, and Namine couldn't clearly identify any of Sora's memories that would've helped.

After they had all eaten, and thus all chances for spit-takes had been exhausted, Yuffie seemed to get over her embarrassment, commenting that she'd always known that Sora and Kairi would end up together by how he used to talk about her, and, with the emergence of Kairi's sister, a fact she accepted without question, she shouldn't be surprised that the blonde girl 'joined in on the fun', was how she phrased it. She then spent the next few minutes lamenting upon the fact she always seemed to develop crushes on boys who were already spoken for, either directly at that moment, or fated to be and currently in denial (as she claimed Sora had been back then).

Then, as the two girls were already blushing bright enough to light the room, Yuffie had started in on the **most** embarrassing topic: details. She had gone on, as she was prone to do, about how she was unlikely to find a nice, available boy for herself for a long time, and until then, she would have to live vicariously. So she proceeded to question the two girls on what, exactly, it was she had heard through the not-nearly-thick-enough walls, as well as everything that had happened before, or would happen after.

Needless to say, both girls were mortified beyond words, and very much unable to respond to any of the kunoichi's questions; not that silence stemmed the tide. Eventually, Kairi had managed to raise her voice to a tiny squeak, and politely excused herself, saying she was going to visit Vincent, and ask him a few questions. Unfortunately, Namine could find no excuse to get away from Yuffie herself, polite or otherwise, and thus, was still almost catatonic with pure awkwardness.

She was infinitely grateful, therefore, when a portal opened up into the room, heralding the arrival or Sora, Cloud, Squall, and Cid. Taking a quick look around, Sora asked hurriedly, "Where's Kairi?" Giving Namine a brief look of apology, for not asking how she was, he explained, "I just found out that Mickey isn't just trying to keep her from me; he's collecting all of the Princesses."

Embarrassment forgotten, Namine paled slightly in fear, replying, "She went for a walk... uh... ten, fifteen minutes ago. Said she was going to go visit Vincent, ask him a few questions."

"Namine, I need you to go back to our room and pack our stuff," Sora asked softly, "Once I get Kairi, we've got to leave. With Mickey collecting Princesses, not even Radiant Garden is safe, not for more than a day or so at a time; we need to keep moving." The blonde girl nodded and rushed off, thankful to be away from Yuffie and her prying questions. Before she left earshot, she heard Sora asking the kunoichi to pick up some last minute supplies for him, and she felt her heart glow with thanks; she knew that Yuffie had been half a heartbeat from following to 'help' her', and do some more prying while she was at it.

"Come on," she heard Cloud remark at the edge of her hearing, "Vincent's cave isn't far from the Great Maw, we should be able to catch up."

o-o-o

"And that's the situation, pretty much," Riku sighed, fingering the hilt of his keyblade absently, as he lounged in the rock formation behind him.

Vincent nodded sagely, his arms folded before his chest. "And so, you have your next decision to make: loyalty to an oath, or loyalty of a friend."

Glancing up at the older man, and trying to ignore the fact his red cloak was constantly rippling in a non-existent breeze, the teen asked, "Which choice did you make?"

"I followed my oath," Vincent replied simply, though with a hint of wistful regret. "I chased away my heart, and here I am now."

"Will I be so lucky?"

Vincent honestly didn't know whether he was being sarcastic or not, so he replied in true Vincent fashion: cryptically. "Wanting atonement is one thing, attaining it is another."

Riku just sighed again. "No matter what choice I make, I'll be betraying someone."

"It's okay Riku, you aren't betraying me," a familiar female voice declared from behind him. Spinning around, he saw Kairi's smiling face. "I don't want anyone else getting hurt."

Riku hung his head. "I'm really sorry Kairi."

"It's okay, we don't blame you." If anything, Kairi just smiled wider. "We wanted to try and help. That's why I'm here; I want to parlay with Mickey, see if I can help him see the truth of things. The others will find a way without me, right Vincent?"

"We have before," the stoic man replied.

Nodding once, the redhead remarked, "I'm ready."

"Alright Kairi, if that's what you want," Riku replied sadly, holding one hand out to one side and opening a corridor of darkness.

o-o-o

"Welp, thank you for your help Merlin," Mickey smiled, "I think I've got everything I need now to get this spell working."

"Ehrm, well, yes, uh, Your Majesty," Merlin stammered, as he often did, "I don't think I'm impressing just how much power you would need for this spell. Even were you to use a ritual over several weeks, you yourself would not be able to garner enough Light energy for even the first stage of your plan, let alone-"

"Relax, old friend," Mickey replied, his left ear twitching as he picked up something on the edge of his hearing, "I've told you before, I have the power issue already solved. In fact, I do believe that Riku has just returned with the final piece. Excuse me." With a quick nod of his head, Mickey hurried off. Merlin, taking one more glance over the king's notes, merely shook his head before teleporting off in a puff of smoke.

Approaching the grounds, which Riku used for opening his corridors of darkness, Mickey could overhear the tail end of a conversation, with a female voice declaring, "I'm just saying Sora's no threat. That 'Anti-Form' thing went away as soon as Aros gave his power to Sora. All he, we, want, is to stop Hades and get our life back."

"Look, I believe you Kairi, you don't need to keep telling me," a male voice, Riku's, replied, "But I'm not the one you need to convince."

"Ah, Riku, welcome back," Mickey called out, announcing his presence, "And I see you brought back our wayward Princess."

"King Mickey," Kairi stated firmly, cutting off any reply Riku might have been about to make, "I have come to discuss terms for the cessation of hostilities against Keyblade Master Sora."

"We will have time to talk later Princess Kairi," the mouse king replied, turning to Riku and adding, "Could you escort her to the others?"

"'Others'?" Kairi parroted in confusion, spinning on her heel to glare at Riku, "You've brought the other Princesses here? Damnit Riku!" Slapping him with all the force she could muster, she shouted, "I wouldn't have come if you'd told me the others were here!"

'And that would be why I didn't tell you,' Riku thought to himself, trying not to roll his eyes. His thoughts were interrupted by the mouse king asking, "And that other problem? Has it been dealt with too?"

"No, Your Majesty," Riku replied stiffly with a shake of his head. "I don't believe that it truly _is_ a problem."

"But you saw the photos-"

"You're talking about Sora aren't you?" Kairi all-but snarled, interrupting.

"You're right, I did see the photos," Riku replied, "And given the story you told me, I did believe that Sora **may** be a problem. But now I have **both** sides to the story. Kairi assures me that Anti-Form is gone, and in the past ten years she is yet to lie to me, or tell me anything she doesn't know as fact is true. If she tells me that Sora isn't a threat, than he isn't a threat, and that's all there is to it."

Mickey frowned slightly. "Riku, I gave you a job to do."

"The job you gave me, Your Majesty, was to gather up the Princesses of Heart," Riku corrected, "That job is now done. If you're now asking me to kill Sora, well, consider this my resignation."

The king just sighed sadly, shaking his head slowly. "Welp, I'm sorry to hear that Riku. I was hopin' to spare you from what was comin', but you leave me no choice." Closing his eyes, Mickey began chanting in a language neither of the Islanders could understand, magical light gathering around his hands. Opening his eyes, Mickey uttered a word that wasn't a word, and the golden light struck Riku, who only had a moment to gasp in shock before his form shimmered out.

Gaping, Kairi screeched, "What did you do to him?!"

"I banished him from my world," Mickey stated firmly, "As I do with all beings who side against the Light."

o-o-o

"She went with him?" Sora exclaimed, running his hands through his spiky locks before he started pacing. "Oh this is all kinds of bad..."

"What's the problem?" Vincent asked. "Kairi left with Riku to parlay with Mickey."

"Vincent, the problem is, with Kairi, Mickey now has all seven Princesses of Heart," Cloud explained.

"He may not have all of them," Vincent reasoned, "He may have just decided to get Kairi before you left Radiant Garden."

Sora shook his head. "No, he would've saved Kairi until last, if only because he knows that _I_ know where the rest of them are. He wouldn't dare take Kairi before he had all six of the others, lest I beat him to one of them."

Thinking out loud, Squall remarked, "Sora, couldn't you just make one of your portals to Disney Castle?"

The Keyblade Master shook his head. "I've tried. One of the main problems is I don't know, exactly, where the world is; I've only been there a handful of times, unlike here, which I've been to countless times. The other problem is the Cornerstone of Light. As long as the Cornerstone is protecting the planet, I may not be able to even set foot on it." Grimacing, he added, "I suspect Riku's been given some kind of magical immunity that allows him to be there."

As if guided by the hand of Fate itself, at that exact moment, there was a flash of golden light, before Riku was unceremoniously dumped on the unforgiving ground. Rubbing his temples to try to clear the fog in his head, the lavender-haired teen remarked, "Okay, that was uncomfortable..."

"Riku?" Sora asked, confused, "What's going on? Why are you back here? Where the hell is Kairi?"

"She's... with the King," Riku replied slowly, holding his head. "He... betrayed me... when I refused to kill you. Banished me. He seems to have some... control, I guess, over the Cornerstone. Can grant access to those who normally wouldn't be allowed, treating them like summons."

"And I assume he just revoked your access," Vincent pointed out.

Riku shrugged, climbing painfully to his feet. "Something like."

Striding over to his old friend, and summoning his Keyblade, Sora asked sternly, "Riku, what did you do?" At the confused look on the older teen's face, Sora clarified, "You have just delivered all seven Princesses of Heart to someone actively against me, on a world none of us can reach. The very world most likely to contain the Realm of Light's gate to Kingdom Hearts."

Riku balked. "What?!"

"King Mickey Mouse has now achieved something not even Maleficent managed to accomplish," Vincent stated gravely, "Thanks to you, he now has all the keys to Kingdom Hearts, and none of us can stop him."

* * *

Author's Notes

I've had this one finished for about a week now, but my beta reader only got around to giving me his feedback the other day. Since then, I'd been intending to upload it earlier, but I got distracted, so, here we are. Happy inoffensively non-denominational generic seasons greetings to everyone (is that PC enough, I wonder...)

If I can, I'll have the next chapter up in time for New Year's, but, don't hold your breath. I'll endeavour to get it out as soon as I can though.


	13. To Lose is to Find

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 12 - To Lose is to Find

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

* * *

_You cast away your home, your friends, everything... But at least they gave you a nice room._

_Your heart only knows how to throw things away. It's empty, like that room. Like your memories. That's why no one is in the castle with you. Your heart is hollow except for the darkness you couldn't quite shake off._

_Be grateful you have someone to keep you company. Your heart is empty. Were it not for the darkness in your heart...you would be completely alone._

_You will come to understand... Chasing the light will not distance you from the dark._

_You opened the door to darkness and destroyed the islands. YOU did that! And now you belong to the darkness._

_Look at you, shrinking away from the light... You're not Riku anymore... You're just a pawn of the darkness. So be it. It's time for you to face the light!_

"What have I done?" Riku whispered in horror, falling to his knees as the gravity of the situation hit him. "I've made the exact same mistake a did over a year ago..." Hanging his head, he added, "You were right Sora. I obviously haven't changed..."

Sora's grip on his keyblade tightened, his knuckles going white from strain, as the darkness inside him surged forward. 'He's just the right height for beheading...' Perhaps it was the look of utter disbelief and shock on his old friend's face, or the fact he had collapsed to his knees, choking on his own self loathing, that held Sora back from acting on the murderous rage that suddenly boiled to life inside him, aimed solely at the defeated figure before him. His anger seemed ripe to tear out of his skin, but with a wordless growl, Sora forcibly banished his keyblade. Clenching his fist tighter, Sora swung, punching Riku so hard that he almost spun the other teen around, before adding, much calmer than he felt before, "Maybe you'll learn this time not to do it again." At the questioning looks he got from the others, he added defensively, "What? You've gotta admit he had it coming!"

Cloud shared a worried look with Vincent; Kairi had been off world for all of five minutes now, if that, and already Sora's darkness was already starting to surge forward. "Sora," the blonde soldier exclaimed firmly, "You need to focus on how we're going to get Kairi back."

The keyblade master closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths, before nodding and opening them again, replying, "You're right Cloud." Glancing over at Cid, he asked, "Do you guys have any Gummi ships? I don't need anything particularly well armed, it just needs to be fast, and armoured enough to punch through whatever defences Disney Castle has."

Pulling a fresh cigarette out of the packed in his shirt pocket, Cid drawled, "Well kid, I don't have anything like that built, but if I get started right now I reckon I could have something ready in two hours, less if you don't need it able to make a return trip."

"So what's your plan?" Squall inquired.

"Simple," Sora replied, "I remember the way to get there via Gummi ship. With enough speed, I can get to Disney Castle in about half an hour. When I get there, rather than landing, I will crash the ship into the castle, and use the chaos to find Kairi; if I stay in Final Form, I should be able to fight against the Cornerstone for long enough to find Kairi and get to the Gummi ship hangar, where I'll steal one of their ships to make our escape."

"So let me get this straight," Cid remarked dryly. "Your plan is to get a fast, sturdy Gummi ship, crash it into a world you're not even sure you can set foot on, and hope you'll have enough time to rescue the princess and steal a ship from a secure hangar before you get evicted?"

"Pretty much."

Squall felt a headache coming on. "And you expect that plan to work?"

"No, actually, I expect that plan to fail miserably," Sora replied, before sighing slightly and adding, "However, it's the best plan I have right now, and if we start preparations now, it gives me about two hours to come up with a better one."

"You're leaving an awful lot to chance," Squall pointed out.

Sora shook his head. "No. I'm leaving it to Fate."

o-o-o

"Hey, Maleficent, babe, how's business?"

"Hades," Maleficent nodded regally, "Good to see you again." Waving her staff absently to direct a chair forward for the god, the witch continued, "I have managed to find a few helpers since we last met, both to repair Kingdom Hearts, and to deal with the keybrat problem."

The dark god smiled broadly, remarking, "I knew going into business with you was a good idea." Snapping his fingers, he added, "I brought a present for you." Within a few seconds, the room had filled with Heartless, almost all of them Invincibles. "Got a few Darksides too, but they won't fit in here."

Maleficent's trademark shark-smile came to her face, "Old friend, you always bring the very best gifts."

Hades shrugged. "Hey, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. Speaking of," running a hand through his blue-flame hair, he added, "Have you come up with a solution to my little Wonderboy problem?"

Before the witch could reply, she was interrupted by the arrival of the nobly dressed warlock who called himself Seymour. Bowing slightly, he intoned, "Apologies dark mistress, I was unaware you had company."

"Who's the fruit?" Hades drawled, glancing absently over his shoulder at the newcomer.

"What did you come here for Seymour?" Maleficent bristled, answering Hades' question without really meaning to.

"Master Xurik had an update for you that I felt was important enough to tell you right away," Seymour replied smoothly. "He would have informed you himself, but he is preparing his strike force at this current time." Waiting for Maleficent's gesture to proceed, he added, "It would appear that Princess Kairi has been taken to Disney Castle, and Keyblade Master Sora is preparing to go rescue her. While he is gone, Xurik plans to grab Namine, who is quite critical to my plan. This will also result in Sora coming to us, another critical factor to my plan."

"Your plan has a lot of things that could go wrong, doesn't it fruitcake?" Hades remarked, a smirk on his face.

"Very well," Maleficent remarked, again ignoring Hades' snide remarks, "When Namine has been captured, be sure to bring her to me."

Seymour bowed once more, excusing himself with, "As you wish, dark mistress."

When the door to Maleficent's chamber closed again, Hades mused aloud, "I think I know that guy from somewhere..." Shaking his head, he asked, "Do you really expect that fruit and this 'Xurik' guy to be able to take out Sora?"

"Perhaps," Maleficent replied, "But perhaps not. In any case, they should provide ample distraction for Sora until such time as **our** plan comes to fruition."

o-o-o

"I just... don't understand..."

"Don't understand what Riku," Sora asked, glancing over at his old friend; he wasn't sure if the term still applied or not though.

Shaking his head slowly, he explained, "I don't understand why he would betray me, betray you, betray... everyone. He told me he has spent the past fifteen or so years trying to prevent anyone getting Kingdom Hearts. Why would he go after it himself?"

"The question is the answer." Vincent remarked quietly.

Riku just blinked in confusion. "Uh... What?"

"I see what Vincent means," Cloud remarked, nodding, "For fifteen years, Mickey has researched Kingdom Hearts, fighting to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands, asking himself 'Why does everyone want Kingdom Hearts badly enough to kill for, to die for?'." Locking eyes with Riku, the blonde soldier added, "How long do you think it would be until that question lead to 'What could _I_ do with Kingdom Hearts?', in all honesty?"

"He's going to turn Kingdom Hearts into a weapon against the Darkness," Sora spat venomously.

Blinking again, Riku asked slowly, "Uh, but... Isn't that a good thing?"

"Riku," Sora sighed, putting a hand to his head, "How many people are there, in all the worlds, that have no darkness in their hearts?" Not waiting for a reply, he continued, "Seven. There can only ever _be_ seven. However, Mickey himself is not one of those seven, so, if we assume he would save people with as little darkness as himself, how many people are there, in all the worlds, with that little darkness?"

"If we don't stop him, pretty soon there won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all," Cloud remarked with a shrug [1]. "I have no doubt that Mickey does what he does with the best of intentions, but-"

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions," Vincent finished coldly.

With the intonation, the conversation fell into a ponderous silence, as each man thought how best to resolve the matter. The sombre mood is abruptly shattered with a puff of blue smoke, and a boisterous voice crying out, "Sora! There you are, I've been looking **everywhere** for- Wow, you look different. Did you lose weight? Get a new haircut?"

Blinking slightly as his brain tried to sort out what had happened, Sora found himself asking, "...Genie? What's... What're you..."

The currently ten-foot tall blue-skinned genie grinned widely, hoisting Sora up and spinning him through the air as he exclaimed, "It feels like it's been _forever_ since we last saw each other!" Setting the Keyblade Master down again, Genie continued, "Oh, but I'm not here for that. You've gotta help us! Jasmine is missing!"

"She's not missing Genie," Sora sighed, pointing absently at Riku and remarking, "Blunder-boy over here took her to Disney Castle. I'm sure-"

"That's just it Sora; I can't reach her." That killed whatever the brown-haired teen was going to say. "I've tried going to her, I've tried bringing her to me, I've tried everything I can think of, and for all of my mostly-infinite cosmic power, I can't even find her!"

Forcing his voice to un-stick, Sora remarked slowly, "This... could be bad."

"I'm afraid," a new voice added, "It is worse than you think."

o-o-o

"You're supposed to be Sora's friend! HOW CAN YOU DO THIS!" Kairi screamed, watching as Captain of the Guard Goofy, head hung, walked off. Sighing, the girl flopped down, back to the door, and mused, "Well, that could have gone better..."

The day had started out so well. She had been able to get away from Yuffie and Namine, and she had been right in her hunch that Riku would find Vincent (or vice versa, it didn't really matter), which made it worth her... borrowing, Yuffie's GPS phone to track the caped man down. Getting Riku on her side had been woefully easy. Mickey himself, however... Well, Mickey hadn't even listened to a word she'd said.

Right after casting the spell that had banished Riku, he'd cast a second spell, and this time, she'd felt a tug on her heart as he did it, but no matter how she'd asked, he'd refused to tell her what he'd done, other than to say that the world was now 'safe', whatever that meant. Then, dismissing her without so much as another glance, he had instructed Goofy to 'escort the Princess to the secure dignitaries room', which lead off the room with the Cornerstone of Light in it.

It may have sounded pleasant enough, but she knew what he really meant: it was a cell, for keeping her out of the way and to stop her from causing trouble. The steel three-point lock on the heavy wooden door she rested against was proof enough of that. To make matters worse, there was no keyhole on the inside of the door, and the window was way too small for her to reach her keyblade out of. In other words, she wasn't getting out of this room until someone let her out, and, with the Cornerstone so close, that person was unlikely to be Sora.

"Kairi? Is that you dear?" The girl glanced up at her name, suddenly realising that, not only was this actually a remarkably large room, she was also not alone.

It took the girl a moment to place a name to the face, before she replied, "Belle?"

The regal woman smiled, clasping her hands together as she exclaimed, "It is you! My, you grew up to be quite a pretty young lady didn't you?" Frowning slightly, Belle added, "Oh, we heard about Sora. Are you... Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine," the redhead smiled, glancing around the room and spotting the other five Princesses listening in. "Despite what you may have heard, Sora didn't go evil. I mean, yeah, he has a lot more darkness in his heart than he used to, but he's still **Sora**, you know?"

"I figured as much," Jasmine ventured, striding up and giving her a quick look-over before asking, "Is he okay? He didn't get hurt when you were captured did he?"

Kairi shook her head. "No, he was no where around. I went to Riku alone and volunteered to be brought here."

A gasp went up around the room, before Belle asked, "Do you know what that means? With all of us here, willingly, then-"

Kairi cut her off with a giggle fit, to the stunned looks of the five older, and one younger, Princesses. Calming down, but still grinning, she asked rhetorically, "Did you think I'd come here without a plan? Trust me. I know Mickey's got plans for us, but I aim to misbehave." [1]

o-o-o

"Merlin!" Sora hissed, arm snapping to one side as he summoned his keyblade. "What are you doing here?"

"Peace, Master Sora," Merlin replied passively, holding his hands out to either side, "I'm here to help you." The aged wizard sighed, adding, "I fear I have made a grave mistake."

"What's happened?" Squall asked, taking up the mantle of peacekeeper; despite Sora's distrust of him, Merlin had been integral to the restoration of Radiant Garden, which afforded him a measure of trust. "What did Mickey want you for?"

"He requested my help in researching a new spell," Merlin explained, "One to amplify the power of the Cornerstone of Light. A spell, I fear, which he has fuelled using the Princesses of Light." Scrubbing a hand through his white hair, he continued, "He told me he planned to ensure no being of Darkness could set foot in Disney Castle by reinforcing the power of the Cornerstone, with the eventual goal of extending the Cornerstone's purview beyond the castle. I continuously warned him of just how much magical power he would need to cast the spell, but he assured me that he had already sorted out. It wasn't until after I left, that I realised what he meant."

Before anyone could comment on the old wizard's words, a cheerful voice, approaching fast, cried out, "Heee~eeey! What'd we miss?" It was a few seconds later that the person the voice belonged to appeared, Yuffie skipping along the mauve rock path, ahead of the group of women following her. Stopping before Cloud with a final hop, rocking back and forth on her heels slightly, the kunoichi continued, "Cid rocked up at the castle and snagged everyone not doin' something, draggin' 'em off to start building a new ship. So what's up"?

Cloud shrugged. "Oh, the usual bad news. Riku took Kairi to Disney Castle, and we just found out that Mickey has used her, and the other six Princesses of Heart, to enhance the Cornerstone of Light. Then, as if that wasn't bad enough news, he plans to use Kingdom Hearts to supercharge the Cornerstone and spread it's effect to other worlds. So, now we have to try and break through a nearly invincible barrier and rescue the princess before the mouse king makes it more invincible."

"Ah," Yuffie nodded, mock-seriously, "A Thursday job."

"No, this is clearly a Friday job," Tifa remarked dryly, "Because it might require extra time over the weekend." Glancing around at the assembled faces, the dark-haired woman asked, "So, what's our best plan of attack? With Aerith and Rinoa, we've got some powerful magicks at our disposal."

Clearing his throat, Merlin explained in his usual stuttering fashion, "Erm, well, yes, those two ladies are remarkably powerful mages, but, I'm afraid, the only wizard I know of with enough power to overcome the spell would be Master Yen Sid. Unfortunately... Master Yen Sid has not left his tower in some time. And short of him summoning you, the only way to reach his tower safely is the train from Twilight Town."

"We don't have time for this!" Sora growled, "Mickey has all seven Princesses. We have no idea how long it will be until he manages to summon Kingdom Hearts, but if he succeeds before we get there, we're screwed."

"Uh, actually," a soft voice remarked from inside the throng of women, "That's... not entirely accurate."

"Namine?" The two keyblade-wielding teens remarked questioningly as the blonde girl slipped out from the group, though for entirely different reasons; in Sora's case, he wanted to know what she meant, while Riku was more confused as to how she still existed.

Grinning slightly as she summoned her keyblade, Namine replied, "Not exactly." Disconnecting the paopu keychain, she dug into her pocket and produced the Oathkeeper chain, clicking it onto her weapon before she was consumed in a flash of light. When that faded, Namine was gone, and in her place was the grinning visage of Kairi, who remarked sheepishly, "Uh... Surprise?" [2]

* * *

Author's Notes

[1] - I am quite aware that these lines may not be entirely in character, but I had a chance to use these quotes, so I took it.

[2] - Hands up, honestly, who saw this coming?

Just a short chapter this time. I had originally planned to include more into this chapter, but this just seemed like a perfect place to end the chapter, so the rest of what I'd planned will be in the next one. I'd also intended to have this uploaded earlier, but I got distracted playing Dissidia.


	14. To Find is to Lose

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 13 - To Find is to Lose

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

* * *

_You don't have any place to go, do you? And you don't have anywhere to go back to, right? Such things don't exist to guys like us._

_That's right. There is no place for me. Still... I have some places I want to go... I have some people I want to see._

_Yeah, same here. So, why don't you just let us go? That old guy told you to get rid of us, didn't he?_

_Really?_

**... Go.**

_You don't think you should accomplish your task right here?_

**I owe you two. For Castle Oblivion.**

_Okay, thanks then._

_I'm sorry._ [1]

"KAIRI?!" Riku exclaimed, eyes bugging out of his head slightly, shaking his head slightly both to clear away the old memory, and to ensure he wasn't seeing things. Seeing that, no, Kairi was still standing in front of him, wearing her usual cheeky grin, the silver-haired teen realized he was having possibly his weirdest day on record; after all, first Kairi had come to him, asking him to take her to Disney Castle, only for Mickey to betray him once he had, then when he gets back to an irate Sora, he finds Kairi hiding as Namine. "What... How... Who the hell was that I took to Disney Castle then?"

"Namine, I assume," the grinning redhead shrugged, "Unless there's a third one of me running about."

"When did the two of you switch places?" Sora asked curiously.

Kairi blushed slightly, glancing down at her feet, "Uh... Yesterday. Before you came back to the castle."

Eyes lighting up, Sora remarked, "OH! So that's why you two were-"

"Why did you switch places?" Squall interrupted, before Sora could both embarrass the Princess further AND mention something that, quite frankly, he didn't think they wanted to hear; well, maybe Yuffie might. "And, for that matter, _how_?"

"Namine did something to my keychain," Kairi explained, tackling the second question first, "I don't know _exactly_ how it works, but I _think_ it's basically an illusion. I mean, with her powers it'd be some sort of memory charm, making everyone see me as Namine rather than turning me into her, so it probably only really works 'coz Namine and I are practically identical anyways. As to the 'why'..." Shrugging slightly, she added, "She said we were gonna pull a prank on Sora, but, after what's happened, I suspect she did it for exactly this reason."

"That makes sense," Tifa remarked, "With Namine going to the castle disguised as Kairi, Mickey would think he had all seven Princesses of Heart and start advancing his plans. However, they wouldn't work properly, and he wouldn't be able to work out why, not realizing that he doesn't have seven Princesses, but only has six."

"Six and a half," Kairi corrected. "Namine's heart is half-identical to mine."

"Whoa, back up a minute there," Riku interjected, "Can we go back to the part about Namine having a **heart**? She's a Nobody, albeit one with bizarre origins, so how could she have a heart? Where did she get one from? Hell, how does she even still _exist_? I saw her join back up with you after we beat Xemnas that first time."

"Short answer," Sora explained, "Namine still exists because she always _had_ a heart; it just wasn't complete." When Riku opened his mouth, Sora continued with, "And if you want the long answer, it can wait until _after_ we've rescued her from the mess you made."

"You have a new plan then?" Cloud asked, already knowing the answer.

Sora nodded, glancing over at Merlin and saying, "Stop me at any point if any of the assumptions I made sound wrong." When the wizened wizard nodded, Sora continued, "When Mickey cast the first phase of his spell, it would had to have been set up in such a way that everyone that was currently on the planet was exempt from the repulsion effect, right?" At Merlin's nod, he added, "Well, Namine isn't just half Kairi; she's half me."

"Uh, what?" Riku asked, confused again.

"What Sora means," Vincent explained, "Is that, to make Namine's heart whole, Sora used the partial heart left over from his merger with Roxas."

Sora didn't bother to question just how Vincent knew this, considering he'd never explained it to the man; at least, he didn't remember explaining it... "Exactly," Sora nodded, "So, staying in Final Form to minimize my own darkness, and with the help of some Light magic, I should be able to, for lack of a better explanation, 'trick' the Cornerstone into matching me with Namine's 'heart signature'."

Stroking his long white beard, Merlin mused, "Hrm... That might just work, yes."

"Sora, you can't beat Mickey," Riku stated resolutely, "Not on his world. Not alone."

"I know," Sora sighed, "I'm hoping it won't come to direct confrontation; I might be able to stall him in the short term though." Sighing again, he remarked, "Ideally, I'd take some backup with me, but we don't have anyone else we could slip past the protective barrier."

After a moment of silence, Riku replied solemnly, "Yes we do. Merlin, Genie," he glanced between the two, "Would you be able to restore the magical 'guest pass' that allowed me past the Cornerstone?"

o-o-o

Thumbing through the massive book in front of him, Mickey frowned to himself. 'I just don't understand why it's not working,' the mouse king groused to himself, 'I've brought all the principle elements together, so why isn't it reacting?' Broken from his thoughts by a knock on the library door, he called out, "Come in." As the face of his Captain of the Guard peered round the door, followed by the rest of his body, Mickey smiled slightly, adding, "Ah, Goofy. Has the final Princess been secured?"

Saluting, Goofy replied, "Er, yes Yer Majesty, I took Kairi to the guest room."

"Was there any reaction from the Cornerstone?"

Goofy scratched his head slightly. "Uh... Not that I saw, Yer Majesty."

Sighing, Mickey remarked, "Oh well. Thank you Goofy." Turning back to his book, he noticed that Goofy had not yet left. Looking up again, he asked, "Is there something else?"

Shuffling awkwardly, Goofy asked, "Um, Yer Majesty, was that really necessary? Locking Kairi and the others up like that? Aren't they our friends?"

Mickey sighed again, explaining, "It's for their own safety. Our defenses are not yet sured up, and if the Princesses had free reign of the castle, they may inadvertently slip outside of the protective grid. Once I have ensured complete safety, I will release them, I assure you." Putting a hand to his chin, he added, mostly to himself, "Though I may need to find some way to ensure Kairi doesn't run straight back to Sora..."

There was another awkward silence, before Goofy asked, "Would that be that bad? Sora loves Kairi; he didn't hide it that well."

"Sora is an agent of darkness now Goofy," Mickey stated firmly, accepting no arguments to the contrary, "Riku confirmed as much when he turned his back on the Light and sided with him." Staring deep into Goofy's soul, he added, "Can you imagine the ramifications of a Princess of Heart falling to the shadow?" When he didn't receive a reply, Mickey nodded, satisfied the discussion was over. "If that is all, Goofy, then I have work I must see to."

Whatever reply Goofy may have been about to make was cut off by the shrill klaxon of the alarm. Worry on his face, even as he began to ready his shield, Goofy asked, "What's goin' on Yer Majesty?"

Leaping over the desk, the mouse king summoned his keyblade without ceremony, replying, "Intruders."

o-o-o

"Remember, it won't last all that long. You'll have maybe two hours, at best, to get in, rescue the princess - erm, I mean, Namine - and get out again, but more likely you'll only have one hour, especially if you exert yourselves," Merlin reiterated.

Hugging him tightly and giving him a quick kiss, Kairi whispered, "Be careful Sora."

"You too Kai," he nodded, adding, after a moment's thought, "Maybe you should put your disguise back on. Wouldn't want Mickey to look in on this world before we're done and see a second Kairi would we?"

Waiting until Kairi had switched her keychains again, Riku asked, "We ready?" At Sora's nod he held out one hand, forming a Dark Corridor to his usual travelling grounds in Disney Castle. "Go."

Flashing into Final Form, Sora dove through the dark doorway, followed quickly by Riku. As the portal closed behind them, the teens glanced around quickly to try and get their bearings, when a shrill alarm sounded, seeming to originate from everywhere. "Gah!" Sora exclaimed, clamping his hands over his ears, "What the hell is that?"

"New," Riku shouted back, as the alarm faded, "Well, looks like the stealth way is out. We're gonna need to hurry." The clank of metal on metal forced a groan from the lavender-haired Keyblader. "Great, just what we need, the guards."

"Relax Reek," Sora remarked, white energy beginning to gather around him as he started floating, his keyblades un-slinging from against his back to float behind him, "I can handle the guards, then I'll catch up with you." Firing a Blizzaga spell at one of the archways, completely freezing up one entrance into the courtyard, he added, "Go! I'll meet you near the throne room."

Riku needed no further encouragement, racing out through one of the remaining archways, leaping over the heads of a formation of confused guards, and quickly creating a Dark Shield wall to prevent them following him as he sprinted off towards the throne room. He ducked and wove amongst the hallways, using his darkness to shield him from pursuers on more than one occasion, the sounds of combat ebbing and flowing behind him. Finally, after what felt like forever, he reached the throne room, quickly opening the hidden door and ducking inside, before freezing as he saw who was inside.

"Welp, I can't say I expected to see _you_ here Riku," Mickey remarked, Kingdom D held in the reverse grip he preferred for fighting.

"Why did you do it?" Riku asked heatedly, "Why did you betray me? You told me that I had chosen a road no one had before, and you wanted to see where that road lead."

"I did," Mickey agreed, "And I saw where it lead. I saw how easily, and readily, you gave into the darkness when it was the 'easy' solution. I still thought you could be saved though. But, when you picked shadow over light by refusing to deal with Sora, welp, I knew you were never going to change."

"I guess he's not the only one who will never change," a new player remarked, heralding Sora's arrival into the room, "You still refuse to accept the grey. So be it."

Face hardening, Mickey barked, "How are you here? You are not welcome on these grounds."

"Return Kairi to me and I'm gone," Sora replied, tightening his grip on his Ultima and Ultima Plus keychains, knowing Mickey would never accede to his demands.

Shifting into his fighting stance, Mickey just remarked to himself, "No matter. I can settle the problem right now." With a war cry, the battle was joined.

o-o-o

Kairi, still in her disguise as Namine, let out a cry of victory as she stabbed her Keyblade through the silvery-white head of the creature before her; the Dusk, if she remembered Sora's stories properly, fading back into the nothingness it was created from. Glancing behind her, she let out a yelp as she quickly ducked, a silver blade sailing through the air that her neck once occupied, before shifting back into the minute bipedal creature it had been originally; a Creeper, she corrected herself.

Sending a fireball its way, she cast her eye around the battlefield, finding everyone locked in combat. The Nobodies had shown up about five minutes after Sora and Riku had left, and even the super powers like Genie and Rinoa were hard pressed to deal with all of them; Kairi recognized every type of Nobody Sora had told her about, except the Samurai. Blinking, she realized there were ten different types, including a type she didn't recognize; it was at that point that one of them turned its attention towards her.

Of all the Nobodies she'd seen, this one most resembled a man, being of average height and build, though it seemed to be wearing spiked plate armour; on closer inspection, the armour _was_ its body. In one hand, it held a triangular sword, spiked along the edges of the five foot blade, with the base of the blade almost a foot wide. Gritting her teeth, Kairi hurled a fireball at it, to see what reaction it would have, but the flames just washed over the armour seemingly without effect.

Unlike most of the other Nobodies, this one didn't rush towards her to press the attack. Instead, it merely swung it's sword through the air, sending out a wave of dark energy towards her. Diving out of the way, she rolled to her feet, only for a second wave of energy to slam into her, driving her back to slam into something behind her. It was only when she felt cold metal press against her neck that she realized that the 'something' she'd run into was actually a 'someone'.

"Don't scream," a cold voice remarked from behind her. "Don't fight. Don't cause any trouble at all. I may need you alive, but I don't need you whole or healthy." With a grunt, he remarked sourly, "All these Nobodies, sacrificed to get you. You make a fuss, and I'll add your friends to their numbers. You don't, and when we leave, so do my soldiers. Understand, Namine?"

Kairi's eyes widened slightly; they weren't after _her_, they wanted Namine. Well, Namine had taken her place to get Mickey off their backs; surely she could do the same for her sister with this new threat. 'I know that voice,' she thought to herself. "Okay, I'll come with you," she responded quietly, "Just don't hurt them."

"Finally," the voice sighed, before Kairi heard the sound of a Corridor of Darkness opening up behind her. Sparing one last look at her friends, Kairi allowed the stranger to drag her through the portal, into the unknown.

o-o-o

Slamming into a wall with a grunt of pain, Sora quickly regained enough of his wits to push himself off again and dive to one side, seconds before a golden Keyblade stabbed into the wall, where his heart had been. Leaping high into the air and gliding across the room, the injured Keyblade Master put as much distance between himself and the king as he could. Spinning around as he landed, Sora noticed that Mickey had already cleared half the distance he'd travelled; for such a small creature, Mickey could move remarkably fast.

Holding one hand towards the tiny monarch, he launched a trio of fireballs almost as big as the mouse king with a cry of "Firaga!" Using the spell as a distraction, he quickly cast his eyes around the room for Riku, before hurriedly gliding over to his fallen friend; this close to the Cornerstone of Light, Riku just didn't have as much power behind him as Sora did, though that gap was fading fast. Landing next to him and placing one hand on his shoulder, he cast a Curaga, green tendrils of energy snaking out to heal Riku's wounds, moments before Riku's eyes snapped open.

"Behind you!" Raising a hand, Riku quickly erected a Dark Shield, the six foot hexagonal-tile wall merely serving as a hurdle for Mickey rather than a blockade, but it did give Sora enough time to react, the Keyblade Master spinning around and casting Magnega behind Mickey, dragging his backwards for long enough for Sora and Riku to clear the area.

Using one gloved hand to wipe a trail of blood away from his mouth, a sure sign that taking a Keyblade to the gut one too many times had caused internal damage, Sora remarked dryly, "Well, this isn't going well."

Flexing the hand that wasn't holding his Keyblade, Riku replied likewise, "What was your first clue?" Gritting his teeth, he hissed, "We need to finish this quickly, we don't have much time left."

Nodding once, Sora remarked, "Go on my signal." Focusing a spell into his left Keyblade, Sora used Strike Raid to hurl it at the fast approaching mouse king. As anticipated, Mickey easily leapt over the whirling weapon, but he didn't expect the purple-and-black ball of magic that fired out of it moments later, the Graviga spell catching him unaware and dragging him back to the ground, unable to move. Seeing the opportunity, Sora and Riku sped forward, intent on ending this fight here and now, and they would have succeeded, if not for outside interference.

Without warning, a hail of lightning bolts rained down around the room, Sora weaving between them, while a stray bolt caught Riku's leg, downing him when his muscles refused to co-operate. Clearing the Thundaga field, Sora drew his Keyblade back to strike, but, mid-swing, his view was filled with, poetically enough, the Save the King shield, held aloft by Goofy himself, and Sora's attack was blocked entirely.

Marching into the throne room, the owner of the Thundaga spell, Court Magician Donald Duck, began quacking irritably, "Hey, what's the big idea Sora, attacking the King like that?"

Leaping backwards away from Goofy, and, more importantly, the recovered king, Sora summoned his offhand Keyblade back, before defending himself, "Hey, _he_ attacked _me_ first; I was just trying to end the fight. It was self defence, just like it was with all those guards."

"You **invaded** my castle, I have every right to fight you!" Mickey shouted back. Point made, Mickey took a step forward to continue the attack, before he was halted by Goofy stepping in front of him. Confused, he asked, "Goofy, what are you doing? We have to finish the fight now, before they can-"

"You always said that we were supposed to talk first, and only attack after we've proven reason was impassi... uh... not gonna happen," Goofy offered by way of answer.

Mickey tried to take another step forward, but Goofy just moved his shield to block him. "He can't be reasoned with. He came here to take the Princesses of Heart."

"That's a load of crap and you know it!" Sora exclaimed, "You know exactly what I want. I don't give a damn about your castle, your world, or Kingdom Hearts; I just want Kairi. I didn't **invade** your world; I came to take back what you'd stolen from me! Return my light to me, and I will happily leave."

o-o-o

"Well, the sound of fighting's stopped," Namine sighed, "I guess this means Sora lost." When she'd changed back into her own form, she'd honestly been surprised at just how easily the other six Princesses had accepted her as Kairi's sister. 'Either they're really trusting, or they've got some power through being a Princess of Heart that allows them to know I'm not lying,' she'd reasoned to herself, 'that, or they can feel my connection to Kairi.'

"You don't know that," Aurora remarked softly, "Maybe they just reached an amicable solution. Maybe someone is coming to get you now."

Namine shook her head slowly. "Sorry, I don't believe that. Even if, as you say, Mickey is doing what he's doing with the best interest of everyone at heart, he can't afford to let me go, let alone giving me to someone with as much darkness in his heart as Sora has now."

"I have to agree with Namine," Jasmine remarked. "King Mickey seems to be very 'light makes right', and I'm not feeling particularly welcome here any longer."

Namine smiled, commenting, "Well, you're welcome to come with me when I go; I can't open a portal to your home world from here, but once we're out of here I can." In truth, this was the heart of the reason she'd come. Namine was, if nothing else, a thinker. She knew that Mickey would never agree to leave Sora alone, just as she knew he would go after the other Princesses, and not just Kairi. So, she hatched a plan. First, while she knew he'd never agree, she had to try reasoning with the king; that plan failed miserably. So, if she couldn't stop Mickey himself, she'd just stop his plans, by turning the Princesses of Heart against him.

Unfortunately, only Jasmine and Belle agreed with her; Snow White, Aurora, and Cinderella were all too willing to help Disney Castle, and Alice, she suspected, stood with the majority; she could forgive the girl for being naive and trusting. Still, two out of six was better than none.

"Well, I'll come with you," Belle stated firmly, "The Beast will work himself up into a frenzy if I don't come home soon."

"I'll come too," Jasmine added, "I trust Genie to protect me more than I do Mickey."

Nodding, Namine closed her eyes, focusing her power, before using her mimicry to change into Sora; despite being a former Nobody, she wasn't confident in her own ability to open a portal from here, but Sora, she knew, could open a portal from pure Nothing, rather than having to rely on Corridors of Darkness. Opening a doorway to Radiant Garden, she turned to the Princesses who chose not to leave and remarked, "Well, it's been nice meeting you in person, but it's time I left. I hope to see you again under better circumstances, once all of this is over."

With a pleasant goodbye, the two Princesses, and one former Nobody, stepped off world, before the portal snapped shut behind them.

o-o-o

"Princess Kairi came here of her own free will," Mickey refuted, "I did not 'steal' her."

"She came here to negotiate a cease fire with you," Riku shot back. "One you, as far as I could see, ignored completely, in favour of banishing me when I refused to kill Sora."

Warking in shock, Donald warbled, "Is that true Your Majesty?"

"I will not hand over one of the Princesses of Heart to an agent of Darkness!" Mickey stated firmly, ignoring the question entirely.

"Agent of Darkness?" Sora echoed incredulously, "I'm trying to _stop_ Hades, not _help_ him! The son of a bitch nearly killed me doing this to me."

Mickey's stern visage didn't waver. "You admit to the darkness in you. Kairi is not safe with you."

Sora scowled. "You don't care about keeping Kairi safe. You just want to use her as a battery to fuel the Cornerstone, while you turn Kingdom Hearts into a weapon."

"Kingdom Hearts is not a weapon; it will be a shield, to protect the innocent," Mickey corrected, "from people like you."

Feeling something at the edge of his senses, Sora smiled briefly, before scowling again. "Come on Riku," he stated, "Let's go. We're wasting our time here."

Smirking triumphantly, Mickey requested, "Donald, could you see them out?"

"Don't bother, we know the way," Sora spat, striding purposefully out of the room, and making Riku hurry to catch up.

Once they were a decent distance away from the throne room, Riku asked, "So, is there any reason we're scurrying away with our tails between our legs?"

"Two reasons, actually," Sora replied, a smile coming to his face. "One: we're almost out of time before the 'bad things' Merlin mentioned would happen will happen. Two: She's not here anymore."

"What?!" Riku shouted, "How? How could you know that?"

"Our hearts are connected; I could sense her the second we got to this world," Sora answered, "And I don't sense her any more. Somehow, she found her own way home."

Groaning, Riku asked, "So we came all this way, and got our asses kicked, for nothing?"

Sora shook his head. "Not nothing. We confirmed Mickey's plans, and for now, that's enough."

o-o-o

"Sora!"

"Oof," catching the blonde missile as she tackled him the second he stepped out of the portal, Sora gave her a quick kiss before saying, "I missed you too Namine. You know, you had me worried."

"I'm sorry," Namine replied, refusing to let Sora go, "I just thought... If I could get Mickey to leave you alone, we wouldn't have to stay on the move. I know how much you wanted to just return home again..."

"It's okay Nam," Sora remarked with a smile, "As long as I have you and Kairi with me, anywhere is home."

"Aww, isn't that sweet?" Glancing over Namine's shoulder, Sora noticed the smiling faces of Belle and Jasmine, the latter having spoken.

"It is indeed," Belle remarked, "But what would young Kairi say?"

"Why don't you ask her yourse-" Trailing off, Sora glanced around at the assembled Restoration Committee members, finding one remarkably important face absent. In a too-calm voice, he asked, "Where is Kairi?"

A worried look on her face, Tifa replied, "We have a problem…"

* * *

Author's Notes

[1] The opening quote this time isn't something from the English release of the game. It's actually from Final Mix+, and as such, I had to take a couple liberties with the translation. Top of your head, can anyone guess which voice is which character?

Well, another chapter done, and only a week or so after the previous one. The next handful of chapters should close the current 'arc' (I use the quotes because I don't actually plan on breaking the story up into arcs, it's just that the plot will advance away from Radiant Garden shortly).

I'm glad that I could surprise at least a few of you when I played switcheroo with the two girls. If you look back, you'll find that 10 (11, including the prologue), when I had Namine enchant Kairi's keychain, towards the end of that scene I was referring to Namine as 'Kairi' and Kairi as 'Namine', because that's what they saw in the mirror.


	15. Deep Dive

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 14 - Deep Dive

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

* * *

He strode purposefully through the Dark City, his mind focused on a single destination: the almost glowing white castle floating on the horizon, The Castle That Never Was. Dark clouds overhead unleashed their payload upon the almost deserted city below, but he paid the rain no mind, the black cloak he wore protecting him. He could feel them, as he walked; the pools of darkness forming in his wake, heralding the arrivals of the Neoshadows who trailed him, but for now, they made no move to attack him, so he pushed them from his mind, focusing on his destination.

When he reached Memory's Skyscraper, however, he paused, noticing more pools of shadow forming on all sides of him, giving rise to more Neoshadows, until he was surrounded on all sides by a sea of yellow eyes. He heard, more than felt, the rain suddenly stop. Casting his gaze up briefly, he saw the clouds dispersing rapidly, revealing the heart-shaped moon, its glow casting the city in an eerie light. The last thing he noticed before returning his attention to the Heartless around him was a familiar-looking figure standing atop Memory's Skyscraper.

Looking around at the Heartless around him, many of whom had begun almost dancing from side to side in anticipation, he threw first his left arm, then his right out, summoning first the Oathkeeper Keyblade, then the Oblivion, spinning both around briefly, then striking them against each other before him and dropping into his fighting stance. For what felt like an age no one moved, the Heartless almost licking their chops at the darkness contained in the heart before them, the only sounds being the wind whistling through the buildings, the fading rain, and the scrabble of dark claws over the black stone below them.

Noticing movement out of the corner of his eye he spun around, slashing downwards behind where he was facing before with Oblivion, and cleaving a Neoshadow that had tried to sneak up on him in half. As if that had been the signal, more Heartless surged forward, and he spun back part of the way, ducking slightly and swinging both Keyblades out, striking, and destroying, two more of the humanoid Heartless. Taking a step backwards, he swung Oathkeeper around, interrupting a Neoshadow's charge before reserving his grip on the weapon. Slashing Oblivion forward, he finished off the injured Heartless, before stabbing Oathkeeper back into another behind him

He spun to one side, leaping slightly to cover the distance, as a pair of Heartless leapt over the heads of their brethren to reach him, only for one to be met by a downward slash from Oathkeeper, then the other from Oblivion. The sea of Neoshadows swam around him, dancing from side to side in an attempt to throw him off, an attempt that proved worthless as he thrust Oathkeeper into the chest of the first to leap towards him, spinning away to bring Oblivion down on another's head as he kicked a third. Then, continuing his fluid motion, he leapt away, dicing the head off one with Oblivion as he flew up, and cutting the legs out from another with Oathkeeper as he landed.

A trio of Neoshadows launched through the air towards him. Gritting his teeth, he leapt backwards, then, as they corrected their trajectories, he leapt straight up, leaving them to crash into each other as he took to the sky. Spinning through the air, he lashed out with his Keyblades, dicing up three of the Heartless that had followed him, before somersaulting to face the ground again and leaping off another's chest as he hurled Oathkeeper, the Strike Raid attack cleaving through the remaining four airborne Heartless before returning to his hand as he landed.

With a mighty somersault backwards, he landed atop the stairs at the base of Memory's Skyscraper, the majority of the sea of Heartless spread before him, though a few climbed the building behind him in an attempt to flank him. He grimaced slightly; this fight was costing him precious time and energy. Glancing upwards, he noticed the figure atop the tower lean over the edge to look at him, and he knew that figure was the key to ending this battle quickly.

Leaping off the head of a nearby gargoyle, he leapt onto the balcony at the top of the stairs, before vaulting off it towards the bank of windows in the centre of the tower; the perfect pathway. He raced up the side of the skyscraper, bent at the waist until his torso was almost vertical, Keyblades held out to either side, and hordes of Heartless chasing after him. A few of the smarter (or stupider, based on your definition) Neoshadows 'grew' out of pools of darkness ahead of him, only to be destroyed by a quick flick of a Keyblade, as he sliced and diced everything before him.

As he drew closer to the massive screen near the top of the tower, he slung Oblivion forward, the black Keyblade spiralling through the air as it sliced through any further Heartless stupid enough to try to block him. The figure atop the tower leapt off, snatching Oblivion out of the air moments after it cleared the massive screen, but before it could pass the remaining half-dozen screens above it. He continued running upwards, Oathkeeper now in his right hand as he moved across the massive screen, as the mysterious figure, now holding Oblivion, fell past him. Time itself seemed to pause as the two passed each other, the figure staring deep into his hood, as he glanced at the figure's all-too-familiar features.

Though he had silver hair and orange eyes, this figure had Riku's face.

Time resumed again as the two passed each other, the Riku look-alike using Oblivion to destroy Neoshadows as he fell, as he continued towards the top of the tower. Reaching the top, he glanced over, watching as the Riku look-alike spun to land on his feet, before engaging the Neoshadows. Gritting his teeth, and clenching Oathkeeper tighter, Sora leapt over the edge. He wanted answers, he wanted vengeance, and above all, he wanted Kairi back.

This figure, he knew, had all three.

o-o-o

* **Several hours earlier** *

"WHAT?!" Sora exclaimed, his voice echoing around the valley; grimacing slightly, Tifa wouldn't have been all too surprised if they could hear him back in town. "What do you mean you 'lost her'?"

Vincent watched the Keyblade Master stoically, Namine's arms still around him, and her head still resting on his chest; he was curious to see how the teen would react. When he had first assumed Kairi taken, Sora had almost lost control of his darkness then, yet now that they knew for a fact Kairi had been taken, though angrier than Cloud and Squall's stories would suggest, he was still mostly in control of himself. 'Namine,' Vincent reasoned to himself, 'She's the balancing factor. With half of her heart matching Kairi, she can keep him from losing control completely, but not enough to stop the darkness influencing him at all.'

"We were attacked," Squall remarked, diverting attention away from Tifa. "Not five minutes after you left, we were besieged by Nobodies, hundreds of them. In the confusion that followed, many of us lost sight of each other, and when the fight was over... She was gone."

"How did the fight end?" Riku asked, clarifying, "Did you kill them all, or did they flee?"

"They fled," Cloud replied, understanding instantly what he meant. "They weren't here for us then, it seems. They wanted her."

"There's more," Yuffie piped up. "There were lots of different types of Nobodies, including a couple we'd never seen here before."

Interest piqued, and calmed enough to respond, Sora asked, "Can you show me?" directing the question towards Merlin. With a wave of his hand, and a short series of puffs of smoke, Merlin summoned up five 'Nobodies'. Casting a quick glance down the line, and noticing what wasn't shown, the Keyblade Master asked, "You guys've had Snipers and Dragoons here since I was here last? Or were there just none of them in the fight?"

Rinoa shook her head, before resting it against Squall's shoulder again. "Oh no, they were here alright."

Going down the line of images, Sora identified each in turn. "Assassin. Gambler. Berserker; hate those things... Sorcerer; huh, never seen those outside of the Castle before..." Pausing as he reached the fifth image, he added, "I have never seen one of those before in my life." Glancing back at Merlin, he asked, "Can you show me how it fights?" With a nod from the wizard, the image began moving, showing how the Nobody lumbered around, and the wave of darkness released it swung it's sword. A bewildered look on his face, Sora remarked, "Uh oh, new rules. Seems we have a new Nobody on our hands, and I don't mean this thing."

Flexing his robotic hand, Barret asked, "Whaddya mean? How you know?"

Riku fielded that question, "Each member of the Organization had a type of Nobody aligned with them. Inhuman Nobodies are pretty malleable, as you've probably seen when fighting them, and as far as I know, they start life as Dusks or Creepers before they're 'promoted'. You see, stronger Nobodies, ones who retain their human form, can reshape the lesser ones, and bind them to their will. This changes how the lesser Nobodies fight, altering them from free-form brawlers to imitations of their 'master'."

"Snipers, for example, fight like Xigbar," Sora continued, "They can defy gravity, and they use projectile weapons. Berserkers, like their controller Saix, wield massive swords. The Sorcerers are the only type that aren't particularly like their controller, but then, Xemnas had quite a few powers, and among them was the barrier ability the Sorcerers had."

"I have no idea what became of the lesser Nobodies of the five Organization members that died in Castle Oblivion," Riku added with a helpless shrug, "But this new one doesn't match any of them. No member of the Organization was aligned with darkness this strongly."

"How do you know so much about them Riku?" Squall asked; Sora, he knew, probably had Roxas' memories.

Riku just shrugged again. "I spent a lot of time around DiZ- uh, I mean, Ansem the Wise. He had a lot of notes, theories, and research material."

In the brief moment of silence that followed, Yuffie suddenly piped up with, "Oh! Sora, after the battle, I found this." Digging into her pockets, she pulled out Kairi's lucky charm, dangling it from its chain for a moment before tossing it over to him."

Catching it with his left hand, as his right was still around Namine's waist, Sora felt the anger rising again. "Kairi's charm..." Blinking slightly as he realised something, he added, "Hey, wait a minute. If Kairi wasn't using this, then that means she was still using Floral Fallal, which means-" [1]

"She still looks like me," Namine finished, looking slightly worried, "But, why would anyone want to kidnap me?"

o-o-o

"Here you are Maleficent. One white witch, as ordered."

Stumbling as she was shoved forward, Kairi, still in her guise as Namine, turned back to glare at her kidnapper, before turning back towards Maleficent, as the horned figure loomed over her. "Very good Xurik," Maleficent intoned, smiling cruelly as she asked, "Did she put up much of a fight?"

Xurik just shook his head. "None, really. I mean, she did kill a few Nobodies, but just Dusks and Creepers. Nothing serious." Smirking slightly, he added, "It's just like I told you, she's a novice. Can barely hold a sword properly, and has almost no skill in magic at all."

"Excellent. Let us hope her original powers remain."

Kairi's eyes widened in realization. 'That's why they want Namine. They want to use her power over memory.' Scowling, Kairi exclaimed, "I'm not going to help _you_! Sora's told me all about you; there's no way I'm going to help you kill him!"

Smiling, Maleficent remarked, "Kill him? Why ever would I want to do that? Sora is doing me a great favour. Every Heartless slain is one less free heart needed to restore Kingdom Hearts. No my dear, I intend to grant Sora a reward. I intend to awaken him to the glory of true darkness!"

With the witch distracted by her monologue, Kairi quickly summoned her Keyblade, managing to get a single swing of the weapon before Xurik recovered enough to restrain her, twisting her arm behind her back. As painful as that was, though, she still felt a smile come to her face at the line of blood along Maleficent's cheek; seems she'd managed to nick her with the teeth.

Almost snarling, Maleficent exclaimed, "You will regret that, foolish girl. Fortunate for you that, for now, I need you alive, but believe me, you will see things my way eventually." Striking the girl in the stomach with her staff, she added, "Xurik, throw her in the dungeon. That should keep her contained until the ritual is ready."

"Sure, why not," Xurik replied flippantly, escorting the girl out of the room. He didn't speak again until he shoved her into the cell, deep in the castle, remarking, "We may be enemies Namine, but still, good shot. If I didn't need the witch, I would've done the same."

Picking herself up as the door slammed closed behind her, Kairi dusted herself off, remarking dryly to herself, "Well, that went well. Something tells me I _don't_ want to be here when they come for me next." Glancing around her cell, she added, "Now I just need to find a way out..."

o-o-o

"To get to me probably," Sora replied sourly, "I seem to be like candy to villains these days."

A massive grin broke out across Yuffie's face, and Cloud just knew that, whatever the girl was about to say, would embarrass either Sora, Kairi and Namine, Yuffie herself, or all of the above. Thus, not giving her a chance to comment, he interrupted with, "Why they took her isn't important. What **is** important is _who_ took her, and _where_?"

Sora scowled. "I know we've got all the pieces to the puzzle right here, but I just can't see the whole picture. I mean, this guy wouldn't have sent this new Nobody type here unless he _wanted_ us to know who he was."

At the confused looks from the Restoration Committee, Riku explained, "When the Organization was still alive and whole, Nobodies never attacked in mixed packs. With the obvious exceptions of Dusks and Creepers, a lesser Nobody only ever attacked with other similar lesser Nobodies. Even when their controllers started dying, very rarely did any lesser Nobody 'mingle' with anything but Dusks, Creepers, or its own kind. Each caste of lesser Nobody was like a calling card saying 'I authorized this attack'; if they didn't want the calling card, they only sent the un-casted."

"This new player, he sent every kind, including a new one." Vincent remarked. "He wanted us to know that not only was there a new Nobody, but he controlled every caste."

"Well, not _every_ caste," Sora replied, "I mean, I still control the Samurai, because they were bound to Rox..." Eyes widening, Sora smacked himself in the forehead, groaning, "Oh man, I am an idiot..."

"Yes you are," Riku replied jokingly, before adding, "Why are you an idiot this time?"

"Because the answers been staring me in the face all day," Sora commented, jabbing a finger in Riku's direction, "You."

Taking a step back, Riku defended himself hotly, "Hey, it wasn't me, don't go blaming me for-"

"No, I don't mean **YOU** you," Sora cut him off, turning back to the rest of the group. "Zack, the guy you saw watching the big Heartless battle yesterday, did he look kind of like Riku?"

"Kinda," Zack shrugged, "I mean, I'm pretty sure the hair's not the right colour, but I was going pretty fast, so..."

Before Riku could protest his innocence again, Sora continued, "Now, we know it wasn't Riku, because he was off world working for Mickey, so that leaves us with someone looking _like_ Riku, probably the same someone who brought the Heartless here, and a new Nobody type that uses darkness." With a satisfied grin, Sora concluded, "Riku has a Nobody."

To most of the Restoration Committee, this conclusion made perfect sense. To Riku, however, it did not, as evidenced when he exclaimed, "What? But I never became a Heartless?"

Sora just looked at him with a wan expression. "Yes you did Riku. You became the **end** **boss**. You remember 'Ansem, Seeker of Darkness' don't you?" Childish though it may be, Sora even made the air quotes to accentuate his point. "Before he possessed you, shunting your heart into darkness, he was basically just a ghost. I mean, where did you think your body went when your heart returned to Kingdom Hearts?"

Seeing Riku had no answer to that, Cloud prompted, "Okay, so we have a 'who'; now we just need a 'where'."

An idea coming to her, Namine looked up at Sora and asked, "Can I borrow Kairi's charm?" One eyebrow quirked in question, he handed over the charm, which the girl clasped between both hands, holding it over her heart. Sliding her eyes shut, she explained, "My heart is connected directly to Kairi now, as it was to you when we first met Sora. This charm is very important to her, so maybe I can follow the 'memory chain' back to Kairi herself."

Focusing on the charm in her hands, Namine could feel an echo of Kairi in it, the memory of when she made it, and of when she gave it to Sora. 'Anchoring' her heart to Sora's, Namine grasped this memory, feeling the pull back to the memory's owner, and following it. A few disoriented minutes later, she found herself looking through different eyes, and seeing an all-too-familiar, if redecorated, room. Letting her anchor drag her back, Namine opened her eyes, stating, "She's in the cell I rescued her from before. She's in the Castle That Never Was."

o-o-o

Pacing up and down the cell, Kairi had yet to find a way out; after all, last time she'd escaped from here, **Namine** got her out. Her Keyblade had proven useless; there was some kind of barrier erected between the bars, and the lock was on the other side of it (and the door). Pausing her worried pace, she heard the approach of footsteps; heavy footsteps, unless she'd missed her guess. 'Damn, they're coming for me!' Panicking slightly, she thought frantically, trying to find a way out. 'I need to escape. Light, I just wish I could-'

"Vanish." Without even truly realising what she was doing, Kairi began weaving magic, casting a spell focused on herself. As white light washed over her, Kairi cringed instinctively, hoping she wouldn't get hurt, but when the spell reached its conclusion, she didn't feel any different. Glancing down, she saw no real effect from the spell, save for a field of white light that seemed to outline her body, regardless of which direction she looked from. 'Great,' she thought sarcastically, 'First spell I create and it doesn't do anything...'

This conclusion was abruptly torn to shreds when she heard the bass voice of the obese cat-dog-creature (based on Sora's descriptions, that could only be Pete) that had approached her cell exclaim, "What? She's gone! How'd that punk girl get outta dere?"

'He can't see me?' Kairi wondered curiously. Testing her theory, she walked right into his line of sight, making a few childishly rude gestures at him, but she got no response. 'Huh. I'm invisible. Doesn't help me get out of the-' Her thoughts were interrupted by Pete opening the cell door, muttering to himself about checking how she got out. Grinning, she slipped out behind him, before frowning slightly and thinking, 'Now, what do I do with him... If I don't do something quickly, he's going to cause a ruckus. If Sora's right, hitting him over the head won't do anything. If only there was a way to put him to-'

"Sleep." Again, the girl began casting magic, this time weaving a spell aimed towards Pete. As the spell washed over him, Kairi almost swore she could _feel_ his higher brain functions shut down, before the obese cat tumbled forward, snoring loudly. 'No way. It can't have been that easy...' Stunned slightly at how easy that had been, Kairi quickly closed the door, aiming her Keyblade at it and locking it again, before shaking her head and musing, 'I doubt it would've worked that well on anyone smarter. For all the talent I seem to have, I doubt my magic is particularly strong.' Suddenly realising that her invisibility spell could wear off any minute, she quickly hurried away, moving as fast as she dare while trying to minimise the noise of her footsteps.

'Now, where did that assh- uh, Xurik, hide my backpack...' Ducking into the first room she found after leaving the cell block, she had a quick look around the room, noting that it was a store room of some kind. Spotting her pink backpack thrown haphazardly against a stack of boxes, she gave up a silent cry of victory, before grabbing it and slinging it over her back. Pausing a moment, she has a quick look behind her, noticing that the white lines that outlined her body did not extend to her backpack. Sighing in frustration, she recast the Vanish spell, pleased to notice that it now affected her bag as well. 'So, I can't just pick up an object and expect it to turn invisible. Good to know.'

Preparing to leave, she noticed the mass of small boxes all around the room, and, curious, opened one to look inside. What she found inside, sitting upon a bed of velvet, was a glass-like sphere, cracked right down the centre almost to the point of being split in half, and dull like a burnt out light bulb. With a start, she realised what the orb was, or at least, what it _once_ was; a summon crystal, the survivor of a destroyed world. She remembered Sora's tales of the Earthshine, Watergleam, Naturespark, and Fireglow gems he had found, and how they each had a light inside that never dimmed; well, someone had dimmed _this_ light, and it brought a tear to her eye.

Glancing through a few of its neighbouring boxes, she noticed they, too, were all broken. Disheartened, she turned to go, when one box caught her eye, thanks to the strange aura around it. Drawing closer to the box, she found it wasn't an aura at all, but mist. Reaching her hand to touch the box, she felt it bitter cold, colder than winter back on the Islands, so she opened it as quick as she could. The box was identical to the others, with one noticeable difference: the crystal inside was whole. The top half was white, the bottom, a pale blue, and the two halves were divided by a jagged line, like a badly drawn 'M'. 'Or an icicle...' she mused. She reached out carefully to touch it, partially afraid of the icy burn it might give, but to her surprise, there was none; instead, her mind was inundated by images and voices, one more prominent than others.

_ What are we doing here? I don't see anyone from the old days, just you, and we're pushing our luck as it is._

_ We look like bad guys! __**Incompetent**__ bad guys!_

_ I know, I know. Freeze. [2]_

'Were those... memories?' Kairi wondered, shaking her head slightly to clear it. Focusing on the crystal again, she noticed that, not only was it _not_ cold to the touch, but it was actually quite warm; not, like, temperature warm, but more... approving. "Hey, trying to escape huh?" She whispered, a little grin on her face, "Well, I have the same thing in mind, so, let's help each other out, okay?" Carefully extracting it from the box, she slipped the crystal into one of the side pockets of her bag, before slipping out of the room again.

o-o-o

"I still think this is a bad idea."

Sora rolled his eyes. "So you've said already. But bad idea or not, I'm still going to do it."

Determined, Riku pressed, "You'll need backup; you can't do everything alone."

"No Riku," Sora replied firmly, "I'm doing this alone, because I have another job I need you to do for me." The trio had said their goodbyes to the Restoration Committee, leaving Genie with the job of getting Belle and Jasmine home, before Riku had opened the Dark Corridor that brought them to where they were now. The plan was simple: the three of them had gone to Twilight Town, where Sora planned to use the mansion's computer to travel to the Virtual mirror of the world, and from their, through Betwixt and Between, to the Dark City. "Your job, Riku, is to keep Namine safe. If your Nobody really is after her, then you have to make sure he fails."

Riku turned to Namine for assistance, knowing that, surely, she'd want to protest getting left out, but the girl was oddly quiet; well, based on what he knew of Namine, her quiet probably wasn't all that odd for her. "You know it's a trap, right?" Riku asked, clutching at straws now.

"Of course I do," Sora snorted, "I'm not a complete idiot. But if I've learned nothing else in my travels, it's that sometimes the only way to deal with traps is to spring them." Turning towards Namine, Sora continued, softer than before, "Nam, if you want to go say hi to the others while you're in Twilight Town, you can. I know the ones Roxas knew weren't real, but they _were_ based on the real ones. Just remember, if anything goes wrong, fall back to either the mansion, and from there to the Virtual world, or the train station, and from there to Yen Sid's Tower."

"I understand Sora," Namine replied quietly, giving him as strong a hug as she could manage, followed by a quick kiss, before asking, "Are you going to be okay though? That world is close to the Darkness, and without me or Kairi... Well, I'm worried."

Sora smiled, his normal carefree grin. "Don't worry Namine," his darkness flexed around him for a moment, before reshaping into an Organization cloak, "I'll be fine; you know the Darkness can never beat me. I'll be back with Kairi before you know it." With another quick kiss, and a roguish grin, he was off, taking a leap off the Station Plaza balcony, and gliding along on the air currents towards the hole-in-a-wall he knew the mansion rested behind.

Watching him go, Namine rested a hand over her heart, whispering, "Stay safe."

o-o-o

* **Now** *

Sora could feel the darkness tugging at his heart, pulsing, trying to consume the last bit of his light, but that only strengthened his resolve. She was here, he could feel it, and she needed him, like he needed her. He had to stay strong, to fight the darkness, not just for himself, but for her.

Touching down at the base of the tower, Oathkeeper in hand, Sora and Riku's Nobody made quick work of the Neoshadows, many fleeing as soon as the Nobody joined the fight. One fight resolved, the two figures turned towards each other, a new fight starting instantly as the two leapt towards the other, locking blades. Shoving the Nobody back, Sora pressed the attack, growling, "Where is she? What have you done with Namine?!" He almost slipped for a moment and called her Kairi; he couldn't do that, he couldn't let them know just how valuable she really was.

The Nobody grinned, though the expression was strained through the effort of parrying Sora's attacks. "Me? Nothing. She seemed all too willing to come with me, almost like-"

"Save it," Sora snarled, firing a shard of ice at his opponent, and forcing him to dodge to one side. "I know her; she wouldn't have gone anywhere with you unless you threatened her somehow, so don't try to convince me she _wanted_ to go with you. Now, where is she?"

Rolling back to his feet, he held Oblivion with both hands, still grinning as the two teens started circling each other, "Last _I_ saw her was when I threw her into her cell, but Maleficent probably has her by now."

"What do you want with her?" Sora asked, Oathkeeper held in a single hand, as he spun the blade absently, goading his opponent into thinking he was unprepared. "And who are you anyway? You're not Riku, Nobody, so don't even pretend."

"I'm Xurik," the Nobody retorted sharply, his face twisting into a mockery of anger, before he continued, "And as for what I want, well... Maleficent has all these grand, misguided plans, but me, I desire only one thing: to destroy you, as you destroyed me."

"What?!" Sora gaped, almost dropping his Keyblade, "I never-"

"You **did**," Xurik hissed, striking Oblivion against the pavement below in (simulated) anger. "You stole Kairi from me, you stole my Keyblade, you stole my **destiny!** You left me with nothing but the darkness, and that darkness made me as I am." Pointing Oblivion at Sora, he sneered, "_Riku_ may have forgiven you, but that's just proof that my heart was _weak_; you made it that way! I figure turn about is fair play. However, I don't _want_ anything that you stole back; it's used, soiled by you. Instead, I'll settle for destroying everything you hold dear, leaving you broken and empty." Grinning coldly, he concluded, "Namine is only the first step. By now Maleficent is turning her against you. Pity we can't turn a Princess of Heart to the darkness. Oh well, guess I'll just have to **kill** Kairi."

With a wordless roar, Sora threw his left hand out, summoning Twilight Thorn, before charging his opponent. [3]

o-o-o

'I wonder what's in _this_ room...'

Kairi had been wandering around the castle for what felt like forever, trying to find something familiar so that she could find her way _out_, but so far she hadn't had much luck on that front. She had, in her travels, found a huge library, a workshop or laboratory of some kind, a few more store rooms (from which she had liberated a few items that looked like they might prove of use), as well as a large collection of rooms that she could find no real use for, similar to the two empty rooms Sora had battled Saix and Luxord in half a year ago. Some rooms she would almost swear she had been into more than once. 'Light, this place feels so non-Euclidian at times...'

Fortunately for her, the Vanish spell she was under seemed to have no duration. She had learned, however, that while she could hold her Keyblade without issue, that summoning it, or swinging it as though to attack, ended the spell's effect; casting magic, on the other hand, did not. She hadn't been game to test how robust the invisibility was, instead opting to remain still and out of sight when she passed any patrol of Heartless or Nobodies; those Sorcerers, if none other, would surely spot her.

Looking around the room, she was about to write it off as another 'no use' room due to the lack of defining features, before she spotted the bed against the far wall, and the bedside table next to it. Carefully walking over to the only real features in the otherwise bland room, Kairi spotted two, and only two, signs that this room had once been lived in: on the table beside the bed was a leather-bound book (a journal, she assumed), and, resting on the pillow, was a single seashell.

Overlooking the book for now, Kairi gently picked the seashell up. It looked a lot like one of the thalassa shells she had made her lucky charm out of, though slightly larger than any of the ones she had used. The back of the shell was a beautiful royal blue, flecked with stripes of sea green, while the inside of it was wonderfully pearlescent; whoever had put this shell here had taken the time to clean it carefully, making her think it had been a gift. Blinking slightly, she noticed the fine silver chain that had been attached to it, through a hole just behind the star-like end of the shell. Carefully slipping it into one of the pockets of her dress, she turned to examine the journal.

The cover of the book was unadorned, just simple yellow-brown leather. Opening it carefully, she gasped in shock as she saw the notations on the very first page, that read _'Number XIII, Roxas. The Key of Destiny.'_ "This is Roxas' room," she whispered to herself, suddenly a lot less guilty about taking the seashell she'd picked up; after all, Roxas wasn't coming back for it, and surely, he wouldn't want it left here, forgotten.

Picking the journal up, Kairi sat down on the edge of the neatly-made bed, flicking through the pages, musing to herself 'Namine would probably like this. Despite her feelings for Sora, I know she still misses Roxas.' Interestingly, she noted, the first entry was headed by the notation 'Day Seven'. Likewise, all following entries were always started by what number the day was; no dates, just a number. 'Weird,' she mused, flicking through a few more pages, 'I wonder why-'

"Ah, I thought we had a little mouse running about," a smooth, unknown voice announced. Snapping the book shut, Kairi quickly glanced over at the speaker, finding a strangely dressed man with long, weirdly styled hair, carrying a staff in one hand, smiling directly at her; the smile did not, however, look friendly. With a start, she realised he could see where she was because she was still holding the book, but before she could even think of dropping it, he raised his staff slightly and cast a spell, intoning, "Dispel."

She closed her eyes and winced; while she knew that what he was casting would get rid of her invisibility, she just hoped it didn't get rid of her disguise illusion too. Her prayers seemed to have answered, as he remarked, "Ah, Namine, there you are. My, I do believe Xurik underestimated your magical talents, for you to get this far unnoticed. I will have to see to your training once you see the truth of the Dark Mistress's plan. Now, are you going to come quietly, or will I have to cast more... unpleasant spells?"

Hanging her head, Kairi just slid off the bed, holding Roxas' Journal in both hands, and letting the strange man lead her to Maleficent. She was in a lot of trouble now, especially when Maleficent realised who she really was. She just prayed that Sora would save her before it was too late.

o-o-o

"Come on Sora, I thought **you** were stronger than that."

Sora snarled. "Get real! Look which one of us is winning." Sora wasn't sure why, but he was hit by a strange sense of deja vu as these words left his mouth.

Xurik just shrugged, switching Oblivion to his offhand. "Perhaps it's time I stop playing around then." Holding out his right hand, the Nobody summoned his own Keyblade with a wave of dark energy, the pool of darkness shattering to reveal the twisted mockery of Riku's Keyblade. Sora was only partially surprised Xurik had his own Keyblade; after all, Riku had stolen _his_ for a while before getting one of his own. Besides, he was still using Oblivion, and only people capable of wielding Keyblades could hold one for any significant length in time.

"Cute," Sora drawled sarcastically, examining the demon wing Keyblade. "You know, I'm not sure it's quite emo enough. I think you need a bad haircut to go with that."

Xurik's eyes narrowed slightly. "Always the comedian aren't you Sora? Oh, I do look forward to wiping that smug grin off your face." With a slash of his Keyblade, he unleashed a wave of Riku's trademark Dark Firaga.

Sora charged forward, tumbling over the purple-black fireballs, before quickly closing the gap with Xurik. The two duelled for a while, the square awash with the sounds of metal on metal, before Xurik managed to connect, striking Sora's left wrist, and with a cry of pain, Twilight Thorn skittered across the plaza. Growling, Sora brought his left hand back, unleashing a Firaga directly into Xurik's face, before kicking the Nobody's left wrist, forcing him to drop Oblivion.

Down to one Keyblade each, the two duelled again, trading Keyblade strikes and fireballs in equal measure, before finally Xurik connected once more, the teeth of Path to the Dusk raking across Sora's stomach, and sending the injured Keyblade master flying backwards. "You see Sora," Xurik crowed in victory, "This time, _I_ am the stronger. I am stronger than Riku, stronger than you; you are in my domain now, and here, I am King!"

Forcing himself to his feet, casting a quick Curaga to seal up the stomach wound, Sora nodded once, painfully. "You're right Xurik," he remarked, "Here, I cannot beat you, not like this. This world is too close to the Darkness, and as long as I cling to the Light, I will lose." When Xurik smirked with what could only be a memory of smug satisfaction, Sora continued, "But, I remembered what Riku told me, when I asked him why he looked like Xehenort's Heartless. He said 'In order to fight in the Realm of Darkness, I had to shroud myself in that same Darkness, and to accept the Darkness in my own heart.'

Xurik rolled his eyes, quipping snidely, "Poetic, but are you going to get to the point any time soon?"

A chuckle began to work its way out of Sora's mouth, a deep, bass rumble that started in his ribcage. "My point?" Sora glanced up, locking eyes with the Nobody, as his own began shifting from brilliant blue to sinister yellow. "My point is simple. I have to release the power in my heart." Sora's Keyblade vanished, as did the discarded Oblivion and Twilight Thorn. Hands free, he grabbed the dark cloak around him, and cast it off. "The dark power that I've been holding back... Even... If it changes me forever!" [4]

With a wordless roar, a pillar of purple-black energy erupted around him, four additional, smaller pillars bursting upwards to form the corner points of a square around him. When the energy faded moments later, Sora had changed. His entire body had faded to black, with hues of purple and blue, and a shadowy smoke drifted away from his back and wrists. His fingers had extended into razor sharp claws, and, as the grin on his face showed, his teeth had become sharpened also. Golden eyes locked with Xurik's orange orbs, Sora hissed, "This time, you die."

Xurik's smirk only widened; it was beautiful to see a plan come together. "We'll see Sora, we will see."

* * *

Author's Notes

[1] - I have just discovered recently that Kairi's Keyblade now has a canon name, thanks to Birth By Sleep. Her Keyblade is named Destiny Place. That said, I don't intend to go back and retcon the canon name back into my story, just as I don't refer to Sora's Twilight Thorn by the canon name(s) of Two Across or Two Become One.

[2] - To anyone who has seen the movie that this summon comes from, those lines should've given it away.

[3] - Yes, Xurik still has Oblivion at this point, which means that, effectively, Sora has summoned **three** Keyblades.

[4] - I thought it appropriate that, as this battle was a mirror of the Riku vs Roxas fight, I should stick with convention, and thus, I blatantly stole Riku's lines here.

Drama! I thought I'd try something different with this chapter, thus, instead of opening it with quotes from the games, I decided instead to start with a mirror of the secret movie that shares it's name with this chapter.


	16. Overwhelming Darkness

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 15 - Overwhelming Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

* * *

_Quit while you can. The darkness will destroy you._

_This Keyblade holds the power to unlock people's hearts. Allow me to demonstrate... Now, open your heart, surrender it to the darkness! Become darkness itself!_

_Open the door, lead me into everlasting darkness!_

_This time, I'll protect you._

_I didn't want to just forget about you, Sora. I couldn't._

_Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you._

Sora could feel the darkness inside him clawing away at his heart, and at his soul. He knew Namine was right, that this world was too close to the darkness, and he also knew that what he was doing right now was a very bad idea, but he had no choice. Kairi was waiting for him. Kairi needed him. And he would do anything, even giving up his very existence, to save her; he had promised to protect her. It was this simple promise that sustained him; the darkness threatened to consume his heart, but if he allowed that to happen, he would be breaking his promise to Kairi, and so, the light in his heart fought all the harder to survive.

He could feel her. This close to the darkness, Sora could easily find her light, even from this distance, deep inside the Castle That Never Was. He could feel her worry, her fear; she needed him, and he knew he didn't have much time before the window to help her would close. Kairi wasn't a fighter. She had all of his old techniques, yes, but she had yet to pit herself against a true opponent, and against Maleficent, he knew, she would fall. His eyes narrowed, a growl working it's way out of his mouth, as he glared at Xurik; he didn't have time to deal with the Nobody any more.

"What's the matter Sora?" Xurik sneered, "I thought you were going to kill me, not growl at me like an animal." Sora said nothing in reply, merely smirking briefly before flickering out, leaving Xurik staring at a blank space, eyes wide in shock. Feeling a presence behind him, he turned slowly, only to be sent sprawling when a powerful shadowy fist impacted his jaw. Rolling back to his feet, Xurik glanced around quickly, trying to find where Sora was. Tightening his hold on Way to the Dusk, Xurik asked slowly, "What game are you playing now Sora?"

The Nobody spun quickly, lashing out behind him with his Keyblade, but his weapon met nothing but air; half a second later, Xurik cried out in pain as a set of sharp claws raked across his back. Launching a black fireball at his assailant, he spun around only to see it flying unerringly towards Memory's Skyscraper, Sora nowhere to be seen. Feeling, more than hearing, the air behind him displacing, he spun around once more, intent on shoving his Keyblade somewhere unpleasant, only to find nothing there but a quickly fading, smirking face.

Backing up slowly, Xurik quickly scanned the courtyard, spotting Sora out of the corners of his eyes no less than a dozen times, only to find him gone by the time his head could pan that far, no matter if his head moved at speeds that would give most people whiplash. He even risked a glance up towards the top of Memory's Skyscraper at one point, and his eyes had opened in fright as he had seen, for less than a second, Sora standing atop the tower, with no idea of how he had gotten that far that fast. Backing up until he felt his foot hit the wall behind him, Xurik shouted out in what would later work out, after comparing it to his memories, was fear, "Where are you?!"

If he had a heart, it would have frozen, as he felt an eerie, icy-yet-warm wind brush the back of his neck, as Sora's voice remarked quietly from behind him, "Here."

Leaping away from the wall as if burned, Xurik took half a (metaphorical) heartbreak to observe that Sora was actually standing upside down on the bottom of a ledge that ran around the building, marking where one floor became the next, before he swung his Keyblade in a direct path towards Sora's neck. The shadowy figure, however, swung itself up and over him, spinning through the air and slashing him across the back with both hands. Roaring in pain, Xurik spun around to attack again, only for Sora to duck under his sword arm and slash him upwards across the chest once, before slashing his face with the other hand.

Bringing up his left arm, Xurik fired off another Dark Firaga, but Sora merely dodged it, easily vaulting over Xurik's arm, and slashing him across the face once more for good measure. When Xurik turned to face him again, however, Sora had evidently tired of playing with him, as the Dark Keyblade Master reared back his right hand, and plunged it into the Nobody's torso right up to the wrist. Smirking coldly, Sora remarked over Xurik's pained spluttering, "Hey 'Rik, I can feel your spine. Huh, didn't know you had one."

o-o-o

"I do apologise for taking so long to find your guest, Dark Mistress," Seymour remarked, his honeyed words flowing out of his, in Kairi's opinion, pompous mouth as the mage bowed slightly to her, though he never let go of the girl's arm, "But it would appear Miss Namine is a lot more resourceful than we were lead to believe. Not only was she able to escape her cell and subdue your lackey, she also managed to infiltrate quite deep into the castle; though, no doubt, she got lost trying to find a way out. She seems to have a lot more talent for magic than Master Xurik reported."

Smiling coldly, Maleficent looked up from the massive crystal ball before her, replying smoothly, "It is of no matter Seymour. Though I would have liked the ritual to be done by now, there may be less need to turn the young witch to our side than I thought. It would seem Sora is closer to our goal than I believed."

Gasping in horror at the impact of her words, Kairi quickly glanced at the crystal ball, watching the tail end of Sora's fight with Xurik; namely, the dark figure of Sora stabbing his arm into the Nobody's chest like he was going to forcibly remove his heart, had he a heart. Shocked beyond words at what she saw, Kairi didn't put up a fight as Seymour lead her across the room, her eyes locked onto the image before her, her mind ignorant of the conversation around her. It wasn't until her arm was released, and the book in her hands torn away, did she notice what had happened. "Hey! That's mine!" She cried indignantly.

Seymour merely smiled, flicking through the first few pages, before remarking, "Miss Namine, if you miss Master Roxas that much, then surely you would support us. After all, when Master Sora falls into darkness eternal once more, we can see our way to reuniting you with him." Snapping the book closed, he began to walk away, nodding once in deference to Maleficent on his way out the door.

"Hey!" Trying to follow him, Kairi was a little surprised when she ran into a barrier that stopped her cold. Glancing around quickly to see what had trapped her, she spotted the runic circle drawn on the ground below her, before her mind dredged up all the talk about some 'ritual', and her heart dropped; she'd been so caught up in what happened to Sora, she'd let herself get trapped again, and this time, her magic wouldn't be able to get her out.

Maleficent smiled cruelly once more, gliding gracefully around her scrying crystal as she commented, "You see now dear, just how futile your efforts are to resist my will, how alone you are in this world. You _will_ serve me, as will Sora. I will enjoy seeing the look on your sister's face when her beloved Sora, fallen to the darkness, hands her over to me." Snarling in anger, Kairi summoned her Keyblade, lashing out at the witch, only for the weapon to glance off the invisible barrier, sending up a shower of sparks along with the sound of metal on stone. Maleficent cackled, before adding, "You are far too late. You have no fate now beyond being my servant!" Green flames began building up around the tip of Maleficent's staff, before the witch remarked, "Give in to the darkness!" and released the flames at her.

Shrieking on instinct alone, Kairi opened her eyes a moment later, surprised to find that, despite the fires roaring around her, she wasn't being burned; in fact, she felt nothing at all. She could see the flames, could hear them, she could even feel them of a sort, could feel where they were and where they weren't, but they didn't burn her. Chancing a glance, she saw Maleficent looking just as confused as she was, and she instantly realised what was happening. The flames weren't actual fire, but simply a spell designed to heighten her own darkness; a feat they failed in, utterly, because she _had_ no darkness.

Grinning, Kairi reached into her pocket, producing the seashell charm she'd found in Roxas' room. Disconnecting the Paopu charm, and silently hoping this would work, she connected the chain of her new charm to the hilt of the weapon, before she, and it, were consumed by light. When the light faded, Kairi was pleased to notice find that, from what reflections she could see, she looked like herself again, though she did silently wonder where the white hooded cloak she was wearing came from; a question for another time. The red trim looked nice on it though.

Her Keyblade too had changed. The blade of her new weapon was stylised to look like a wave, with the teeth of the key made up of the white wash, though, on closer inspection, she could see similar markings to those that made up the teeth of Oathkeeper. There was a red symbol at the hilt, very much resembling the grey ones she'd seen around the castle on her last visit, though this one had two yellow dots inside the indentations on either side. The guard, like the one on Floral Fallal, was asymmetrical, though both sides of this, at least, had the same design: chains. The front guard was a simple length from top to bottom, though with a definite pointed kink, while the back guard looked like two shorter lengths of chain knotted together, with tails pointing away from the knot both above and below; she noted, in the back of her mind, that it almost looked like an 'X'. [1]

Instinctively, Kairi knew the weapon's name. 'Tide of Remembrance' Glancing away from her weapon and back towards the dark witch before her, Kairi remarked confidently, "You're wrong Maleficent. My fate is what I make of it." Spinning her Keyblade until it was point down, she stabbed it into the ground, cracking the runic containment circle, before channelling destructive magic through it to ensure the seal was broken. "And right now, my fate is to make sure your plans fail, and to see to it you never get your filthy claws on Sora."

"And how will you do that, girl?" Maleficent sneered, "My plan is already a success."

"We'll see about that," Kairi replied, grinning slightly before she quipped, "Well, **I'll** see at least. Vanish!"

o-o-o

"I'm telling you Namine, this is a-"

"A 'bad idea'," Namine cut him off, rolling her eyes, "You think **everything's** a bad idea. Light, I remember you being more fun than this, but you are so _paranoid_ these days."

"I have good reason to be paranoid," Riku almost hissed, "My supposed Nobody is actively hunting you, and we have Mickey, Hades, and who-knows-else actively hunting Sora. Then, we have Sora himself, who swore on his very existence that if anything were to happen to you, Very Bad Things would, in turn, happen to me, to the point where I would wish I had died to protect you, and yet here you are, brazenly walking along the street without being in disguise on a world a hop-skip-jump away from the villain's lair." Taking a post-rant breath, he added, "Being paranoid has kept me alive this long, and I have no intention of being killed due to you being sloppy."

"And **I** told **you** already that I'm not going to be in disguise when I meet them," Namine replied, hands on her hips. "They know Kairi, and I'm not going to pretend to be her while we're here. Besides, your Nobody and whoever he's working with will be way to busy dealing with Sora to even notice us here, especially when they think they already _have_ me."

"And what if he starts looking for me?"

Namine sighed. "Riku, no offence but if your Nobody wanted you, you're enough of a loner that he would've already found and killed you, or captured you, or whatever." Turning away from him to continue on her way, she added, "Now, we're almost there, so play nice would you?"

The walk the rest of the way to The Usual Place was blessedly silent. Spotting the familiar looking red curtain (actually an old rug, but hung up over the doorway) she took a deep breath, before brushing it aside and walking in. "Hey, what're you doing back here?" A male voice called out. "This is our spot."

Namine blinked, thinking a moment, before replying, "You're... Hayner, right?" Looking around the cosy little hideout, she continued, "And that'd make you... Pence? And you're Olette."

"Uh, yeah, that's us," Pence replied, "How'd you know?"

Standing up and walking towards her slowly, Olette asked, "Have... Have we met before? You look familiar."

Namine blushed, replying, "Oh, sorry. My name's Namine. My sister told me about you guys; I believe you met her? Her name's Kairi."

A smile spreading across her face, Olette remarked, "So Kairi's okay? We never really heard anything after she got taken by that black coated man, and that was months ago." Blinking, she tilted her head to one side, remarking, "Oh, but Kairi never mentioned she had a sister."

Rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly, Namine explained, "Yeah, that's kind of a long story. After Kairi was rescued, we really didn't get a chance to come back here and see you guys until now; we were basically forced to go back home. And Kairi didn't know she _had_ a sister until we met, which wasn't until after she was taken; that's another long story." Pausing, she turned back slightly to the doorway and yanked Riku in by the arm, adding, "Oh, and this anti-social lump is Riku. He's Sora's friend."

Glancing at the two boys, and noticing that they looked as interested as she felt, Olette asked, "Do you have enough time to tell us that story?"

Namine smiled widely. "I'd like that."

o-o-o

"What's the matter Xurik?" Sora growled. "No snide comments? I thought you were going to 'destroy everything I hold dear'; I thought you were king here?" Twisting his claws inside Xurik's body, Sora added, "If you tell me where Namine is, I'll make the pain stop."

"Thanks for the offer, but I already told you, by now, Maleficent will have converted Namine to our side; you're too late." Smirking suddenly, Xurik pooled dark fire into his left hand, remarking, "And Nobodies don't **feel** pain!" With Sora's arm buried in Xurik's chest as it was, there was no way for the Keyblade Master to dodge the fireball this time, as Xurik swung his hand forward, holding it directly in front of Sora's face, and firing. Crying out in pain, Sora snatched his hand out, staggering around blindly for a moment. Snapping his fingers, Xurik summoned a squad of Nobodies, before opening a Dark Corridor and disappearing without a word.

Thankfully for Sora the fire died quickly; the leftover smoke, however, took longer to clear, meaning that Sora was unaware of the new threat around him, and thus, unprepared for the massive Berserker claymore that caught him in the back. That attack, in turn, left him open for a Dancer to throw him across the courtyard and into a wall, before a pair of Snipers pelted him with shots. Dazed and injured, Sora's vision cleared just in time to see the Assassin that leapt out of the ground, glowing as it prepared to self destruct.

With a feral snarl, Sora lashed out, grabbing the Assassin at either end, and ripping it in half, the built-up energy exploding upwards harmlessly. Panting, Sora didn't notice his wounds beginning to heal automatically as the darkness built up around him; all he saw was a field of enemies, before he blurred out, and the dying started.

It took him all of three second to obliterate the strike force of twelve. Glancing up towards the castle, Sora's form blurred once more, reappearing on top of Memory's Skyscraper. The crystalline bridge he had used to enter the castle was gone, and the distance was too far for him to teleport across. Reaching down the side of the tower, he tore off one of the monitors, hurling it towards the castle, before blurring on top of it and riding it across.

Landing smoothly on the polished white floor, Sora dropped to all fours, sniffing the air for his prey, as his heart searched for Kairi. The hunt was on.

o-o-o

"I know you're still here Namine," Maleficent intoned, casting her cruel gaze across the spartan room. "You may have broken free of the containment field, but you cannot leave this room." Smiling slightly, she added, "I must admit, begrudgingly, I am impressed at your escape, but I do wonder why you felt the need to cloak yourself; it's not as if I am unaware of who you are." Still glancing around the room in the event the girl would reappear, she continued talking. "Or is it something as simple as a fetisch or foci that heightens your magic. If you are indeed weaker than your... sister, is it? In magic, than I would so love to see her true strength. A pity I could not get her to side with me; such a waste of talent."

'What is that witch raving about now?' Kairi mused to herself, trying to edge around the room as quickly as she could while remaining quiet. Opening the door was a bad idea, but maybe she could get in range to blast it open with magic, and hopefully distract the witch long enough to escape. Almost tripping as her mind registered the fact Maleficent was still calling her 'Namine', she thought dazedly, 'Did she not get a clear look at me through the hood?' Glancing at her keychain, she added thoughtfully, 'Or is it this? Sora did say each keychain had a unique power, as well as changing the form of the Keyblade.'

"Hopefully your talent will not be similarly squandered, fighting for the pathetic light." Maleficent continued. "That Vanish spell of yours is quite an interesting choice. On the one hand, an invisibility spell makes it remarkably hard to target you with further spells, while granting you the chance to cast spells of your own, especially if they leave no trail back towards you. On the other hand, however, it is remarkable how many simple solutions problems it firsts. First and foremost, a closed door." Maleficent smiled again, "Oh, but you're much too clever for that my dear aren't you. Which leads me to the second problem."

With a wave of her staff, a baleful green light enveloped the witch, before spreading to the meagre furnishings in the room. As the witch strode into the room's very centre, the glowing objects began to float up, before spinning around the room, slowly at first, then picking up speed, as the circle spread wider. "The second problem with invisibility is that it gives your enemies no incentive _not_ to simply saturate the area with magic!"

'Oh crap!' Kairi cussed to herself, diving forward a split second before a flying chair would've struck where she was before. Dropping low to the ground, Kairi slipped her backpack off, keeping one hand on it to ensure it remained hidden, before inching herself along the floor. 'I have _so_ got to replace this bag with magic pants like Sora has, or a belt pouch, or something else small. It's throwing off my balance, not to mention slowing me down.'

"Impressive," Maleficent mocked, "You managed to avoid the first wave. Let's see how long you can keep this up!"

'Oh CRAP!' Not only was there still a ring of spinning furniture around the edges of the room, but now, there was an expanding ring of green fire around Maleficent. And, to make life more fun, the furniture was wavering up and down, just to make sure no one was ducking under or hovering over it. 'Sora, where are you! I need help; none of my magic is going to be anywhere near strong enough to even _hurt_ her.' Unbeknownst to her, one of the pockets on her backpack began glowing slightly, the light still hidden from the dark witch due to the Vanish spell.

Gritting her teeth as the fires drew closer, the thought frantically, 'I can't just sit here and do nothing! I need to either get rid of the fire, or the ring of...' Trailing off as an idea occurred to her, she prayed silently, 'Oh I hope I remember this spell right...' Aiming her Keyblade at the air right above Maleficent, she focused her mind back to a spell she watched Sora casting, releasing the energy with a cry of "Magnet!"

A swirling... whatever it was, formed above Maleficent's head, not quite strong enough to affect the witch herself, but more than strong enough to drag the free-floating furniture through the ring of fire, and into the airspace crowding Maleficent; unless she missed her guess, at least one of the pieces of fiery furniture struck the witch. Channelling again, she cast a second, similar spell that she remembered. "Gravity!" The black-and-purple sphere that formed dragged the pile of burning wood-and-metal down, catching Maleficent on the way down, and (finally) disrupting her concentration on the fire ring, which petered out less than a foot away from Kairi's shoes.

The effects of the Gravity spell quickly faded, and one violent explosion later, Maleficent was free from the pile of refuse again; unfortunately for Kairi, that was where her luck ran out. One of the pieces of debris struck her one the side of the head, and before she could stop herself, she cried out in pain. The debris was swiftly followed by a baleful green fireball, which impacted the ground right near her, sending the girl careening wildly through the air for a short moment before she hit the wall, landing awkwardly on her feet as the fires quickly died, leaving her cloak with not a singe on it. The Vanish spell, however, had worn off.

"I tire of playing games with you girl!" Maleficent shouted, in a combination of anger and annoyance, "You WILL serve my plans one way or the other. Either in life, as my apprentice, or in death, as one more shadow in Sora's heart."

Eyes wide in fright, Kairi thought, 'There's no way I can beat her alone; she's going to kill me!' Feeling a pull, of sorts, in her heart, Kairi quickly glanced over to her discarded backpack, noticing the pulsing light in one of the side pockets. 'Of course! I'm not really alone at all am I?' "I'm afraid that's where you're wrong Maleficent," Kairi remarked, holding her left hand over her heart. "You see, I made a friend in your castle-" a white light began glowing from inside Kairi's hand "-and I think he'd have something to say about that." The light in her hand flashed, echoed by the light in her backpack side pocket, before the tip of her Keyblade began glowing. "Come to my aid, Frozone!"

Swinging Tide of Remembrance to one side, she launched a ball of light from the tip, a light which impacted the wall beside her, moments before a ring of ice began spreading away from the point of impact. The temperature in the room seemed to get noticeably cooler as the ice spread, before the centre of the icy patch seemed to explode inwards, scattering across the ground as snow. Moments later, a strange figure seemed to skate through the hole in the wall, which, on further observation, did _not_ lead through the wall, instead leading to wherever this figure came from.

The figure, a man, was tall; almost as tall as Maleficent, horns and all. He was wearing a pale blue body suit, though the chest was white and decorated with a similar stylised 'M' as what she'd seen on the summon gem; obviously, it _was_ meant to represent an icicle. He wore white gloves and boots, and half of his face was obscured behind a white mask, a long blue line wrapping around the mask as a visor. His skin colour, Kairi noticed, was actually brown-ish; no one she knew of back on the islands had a skin tone like that.

Sliding to a stop near her, the tall man grinned at Kairi, remarking, "Someone call my name?"

o-o-o

Pacing slowly back and forth across his lab, Seymour almost absently flicked through the leather-bound tome in his hands, humming in interest at some points, and in curiosity at others. So invested was his interest in the book, he almost missed the sound of a Dark Corridor opening near by, and the strained voice of Xurik remarking, "Well, that didn't exactly go as planned."

"Not much has today Master Xurik," Seymour quipped, snapping the book shut and setting it on his desk, "But we shall salvage from it what we shall, so, if you please?" With one hand, he waved absently towards the machine in the corner, and with no further prompting, the wounded Nobody climbed inside.

The entire procedure took only a handful of minutes, before Xurik was free to extract himself again, limping over to the computer Seymour was watching over to check the results. "So, did we get everything we needed?"

"It would appear so," Seymour replied, casting a quick Cura to ensure the Nobody didn't 'bleed out', so to speak, "So for now, your part in this little melodrama is finished."

"Wonderful," Xurik commented, with something passing for sarcasm, slouching against the console, "I guess that leaves me with Heartless duty until something better comes up." Head perking up for a moment, he asked, "So, what else's managed to go wrong today?"

"Namine was not in her cell," Seymour replied, looking over the readouts on the computer screen. "I found her snooping around the castle. It would appear she managed to escape her cell, subdue that fool Pete, and infiltrate a stone's throw from your quarters undetected." Glancing up at Xurik, he added, "It would appear you underestimated her magical strength."

"Not possible," Xurik defended hotly, "I _watched_ Sora training them, and Namine could barely cast a simple fireball."

"Did you not also report that, during the battle, Namine changed forms to one of the planet's defenders, and was then seen casting high level magic?"

Shifting uncomfortably, Xurik replied, "Well, yeah, but that was only her copying someone else. That's not about to make _her_ stronger at magic, no matter how many spells she knows."

"Then how do you explain the fact I found Namine in one of the old bedrooms, under the effect of an invisibility spell?" There was no note of accusation in Seymour's voice; only curiosity.

Xurik just shrugged. "I can't. The only explanation I have is that it's _not_ Namine."

Seymour just smiled, murmuring, "Interesting..."

o-o-o

Sora raced through the off-white castle on all four, midnight claws tearing chunks out of the halls as he hurried along towards Kairi. He knew this castle, he'd stalked these halls before, and yet, everything was different. There were walls where they should be passages, stairs where there should be walls, pitfalls where there should be floor, and passages where there were no passages before; it was as if the entire castle had changed, reshaping itself to the will of it's new owner and master.

Being a Nobody world, perhaps it had done just that.

None of the delays hampered Sora though. Where there was no floor, he raced across a wall; where there was neither, he simply teleported across. When he reached a wall that he knew he had to get past, he teleported through, and if he couldn't do that, he tore the wall down with his claws; only rarely could he do neither of those, and in that case, he usually teleported straight up. His mind was focused into a single minded determination: find Kairi. What came next would come to him when that goal was met.

The halls were crawling with Heartless and Nobodies, but they didn't even slow him down. The Heartless all either shied away from him, fearful of the aura of menace he exuded, or else, they swiftly were destroyed by his claws; such a show of power tended to send the other Heartless running. To the Heartless, he appeared as one of their own, a God amongst them, and most were not willing to follow the dark witch's orders to attack him.

The Nobodies, however, were not so easily cowed. With no hearts to call their own, they could feel no fear, and thus those he encountered attacked without fail; and, without fail, were destroyed to a man. In his current state, Sora's speed had increased a dozen fold, as has his strength. All before him he saw nothing but delays, things trying to keep him from Kairi, and delays were to be terminated with extreme prejudice.

Sniffing the air as he finished destroying a group of Sorcerers, Sora's head whipped to one side; Kairi was close! Racing in her direction, Sora barely saw the Berserker that tried to block his path, but as the large Nobody swung its sword, Sora leapt slightly into the air mid-run, spinning into a corkscrew, and drilling a hole straight through it, not even slowing down for a second. Kairi was close. Kairi needed him.

He would not fail her.

o-o-o

Dodge Rolling under a green fireball, Kairi sprinted towards Maleficent, as Frozone have her covering fire (or ice, in this case) from afar, both to quash what spells he could, and to keep Maleficent from focusing all of her efforts on the cloaked Princess; he was mostly successful. Just as Kairi reached striking range, Maleficent turned towards her, her staff wreathed in flame as the witch swung it at her. Letting out a panicked "Eeep!" Kairi swung her Keyblade up, parrying Maleficent's blow by sheer luck more than anything else, before, in a burst of inspiration, spinning on her heel, following the recoil momentum of her parry, and catching the defenceless Maleficent with the flat side of her weapon.

Going into this fight, Kairi knew that there was no way she would be able to actually _beat_ Maleficent, and based on Sora's tales of battles past, maybe she wasn't meant to. She remembered him telling her that whenever any of the particularly strong enemies attacked, or simply a larger than normal group, more often than not there was this barrier of white light that sprang up, keeping all combatants from leaving the area until one side had been defeated; she'd even seen it herself when he fought Saix.

He'd told her (well, her and Namine, as he was sharing this story to the both of them) that he had no idea where the barriers came from, or even what made them, whether it was something innate the enemy did, or one of their higher ups who were watching the battle; it may, he'd added, even be something to do with the Keyblade itself, ensuring the Heartless could not flee it's wrath. In any case, the 'how' or 'why' of it weren't really important.

What was important, however, was that she'd seen no such barrier when _this_ fight started, which, to her, meant standing and fighting was a bad idea.

Unfortunately, no matter how well Frozone screened for her, Maleficent always seemed to know when she decided to make a dash for the door, and three times now she would've been roasted if not for Frozone sliding past and snagging her out of the way. Early on in the fight, when it had become clear there wouldn't be much room _to_ fight, he had (somehow) changed his ice skates into a white elliptical dish. Using one hand to maintain a path of ice, he'd been sliding around the room, using his other hand to spray Maleficent when the opportunity presented itself.

A loud clang distracted her from her thoughts. On instinct, Kairi Dodge Rolled to one side, just missing another fireball, before glancing over to where she'd heard the noise, and finding Frozone removing the dish from his feet, and strapping it to one arm to use as a shield. Her eyes widened slightly when Maleficent launched another spell at him, and rather than using his ice to douse it as he had been, he instead raised the shield to block it, before sending out the tiniest sprays of ice to quench the fire still on the shield. Racing over to him, and sliding behind the cover his shield provided, Kairi asked, "What's wrong?"

"The room's too hot," Frozone explained. "See, I change the temperature of the water in the air, allowing me to freeze it. But with all this fire-"

"There's no water _left_," Kairi cut him off, smiling as he nodded. Grinning as an idea occurred to her, she added, "Well, we'll have to see about fixing that won't we?"

The Princess of Heart ignored his confused look, closing her eyes and trusting him to protect her as she focused. She cast her mind back to her home, Destiny Islands, the only home she knew. She remembered the smell of the salt water, the sound of waves crashing upon the many beaches, the feel of the cool water against her skin on a hot day. She remembered the water, and she made it work for her, like Sora had taught her to do with fire. Aiming her Keyblade at Maleficent, Kairi nodded once, signalling to Frozone to remove the shield, before unleashing her spell. "Water!"

A massive jet of water burst out of her Keyblade, arcing through the air, before striking the confused witch in the face. Unfocused beyond hitting Maleficent, the torrent splashed around the room, dousing everything in a fine dew, and soaking Maleficent from head to toe. Kairi couldn't keep the childish grin from her face, despite how balefully Maleficent was glaring at her, as the witch asked, "What was the purpose of that? Trying to see if the old wives tale of water killing witches worked?"

"No," Kairi replied cheekily, "I just wanted to make you look like an idiot." As the dark witch's anger seemed to ratchet up another notch, Kairi added, "Oh, and this: Frozone?"

"Freeze." At that single word, a spray of supercooled air burst from his hands, rapidly freezing the water that clung to Maleficent's form, as well as coating the walls, floor, and ceiling of the room in a fine layer of ice and snow.

Seeing an opportunity, Kairi sprinted towards Maleficent, heedless of the slippery floor beneath her. Just as the snow transitioned into ice as she drew closer to Maleficent, Kairi leapt into the air, Keyblade glowing briefly as Kairi shouted out the name of the technique: "Ragnarok!" The airborne Princess struck the frozen witch with a devastating flurry of attacks, before flipping backwards in the air and focusing crimson energy towards the tip of her Keyblade, releasing it with a cry: "Burst!" A half dozen red lasers fired out of Tide of Remembrance, arcing through the air slightly before drilling into, and through, the frozen form of Maleficent; unfortunately, being just light and painful energy, there were no holes left in the witch herself when the attack faded.

Smiling as she landed back next to Frozone, Kairi actually thought, for the briefest of moments, that she _might_ be able to defeat Maleficent after all; this hope died just as suddenly as it was borne, when Maleficent burst from her icy prison in a green conflagration, shouting, "Enough! You have tried my patience for the last time Namine. I was trying to take you alive, but no longer. You will serve me better in death!"

Paling slightly, Kairi clutched Tide of Remembrance tighter, praying silently, 'Sora, hurry!'

o-o-o

Kairi was extremely close; she was so close, in fact, Sora could almost smell the scent of her hair. Here, as close to her as he was, the purity of her heart was almost blinding, but he did not fear the light; he craved it, to drive back the shadows. She was not alone. He could feel two other hearts in there with her. One was strong, but foreign; a lost traveller, like the lion, or the dragon from a time before. The other was the exact opposite of Kairi, dark as midnight, stained, and evil, oh so evil. It mattered not; Kairi was close.

He sunk his claws into the door keeping him away from Kairi, gritting his teeth as he gripped it tightly, before wrenching the door off its fittings, hurling it absently down the hallway he'd travelled up. Scampering into the room, he paid no mind to how all activity ceased at his entry; all that mattered was Kairi. She was okay, and looking like herself again, though she also looked a little roughed up; a growl worked its way out his mouth. The dark one would pay for that!

"Sora?" Kairi asked nervously. Sora almost looked more animal than man, looked like the Heartless inside him they had called Anti-form had taken control of him again. As she watched, though, she could almost feel the humanity returning to him, could almost see the claws on his hands retracting into fingers once more as he remembered how. She almost breathed a sigh of relief, before the witch between her and Sora let out an evil cackle, and her heart grew cold.

"Excellent!" Maleficent almost purred, "I knew if I kept you busy long enough Sora would find his way here. My, it seems the darkness inside him has already taken over, doesn't it my dear Namine?" Smiling coldly, she added, "All it will take is one final push, and Sora will be mine to control!" So said, the witch tapped her staff against the ground once, causing a runic circle just inside the door to activate, trapping Sora inside, before quickly reciting the ritual she had tried against Kairi earlier, and launching the wave of green fire at the helpless Keyblade Master.

"No, Sora!" Kairi couldn't look, didn't want to see Sora turn completely to darkness. 'No! He won't!' She swore to herself vehemently, reaffirming her faith in Sora. 'He made me a promise, and he always keeps his promises.'

Maleficent continued to cackle, revelling in her apparent victory, before cutting off sharply as the flames died down to reveal... nothing; Sora was gone. "What?! Where-"

"You just don't get it, do you Maleficent?" Spinning around, both Kairi and Maleficent saw Sora standing near the opposite wall, and Kairi felt twice as relieved to see Oblivion and Twilight Thorn in his hands again, irregardless of the darkness that still clung to his body, though he dismissed them soon after. "You are not the Great Mistress of the Darkness you seem to believe you are; you are nothing more than a puppet. And you will never win."

Disappearing in a blur, Sora reappeared between Kairi and Frozone, placing one hand on the taller man's shoulder and nodding once, before using his magic to Dismiss him back into the crystal until needed again; Kairi blinked slightly when she saw that Sora had moved so fast, he'd had time to snag her backpack too. Wrapping his other arm around Kairi's waist, Sora waved absently at Maleficent, remarking, "Well, it's been fun wrecking your base and killing your dudes, but its high time we split. Don't come after us again, or I might not be as generous as I am now in letting you live next time."

In another blur of darkness, the two were gone as suddenly as Sora had arrived. Lowering her staff, Maleficent cast one glance at the room before striding out, her mind already pondering over the new strength Deeper Darkness had granted Sora, and how best to counter it.

* * *

Author's Notes

[1] - Can anyone guess where I got the inspiration for this Keyblade from? I think I've left more than enough clues in the description. For bonus points, see if you can name the clues as well.

Sorry this one took so long to get out. It's actually been finished for a while now, but _Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days_ had held ownership over my soul for the past week or so. Then, yesterday when I did get around to uploading this, FFN was giving me probems and refusing to upload anything, so I had to wait until today.

Hopefully, the next chapter won't take quite as long to release as this one. But then, conversely, other than a minor amount of plotline I could finish in the next chapter, and a few over-arcing ideas, from here on out I'm making it up as I go along, so, we'll see how things go.


	17. Stand in the Twilight

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 16 - Stand in the Twilight

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

* * *

_**Last one there has to buy the winner an ice cream!  
**__Oh, sure, now you tell us!  
__No fair, Hayner!  
__**Better get flyin' if you don't wanna end up buyin'!**_

_On your own today? Oh, did you find your friend?  
__Friend of yours, Pence? It's nice to meet you. I'm Olette.  
__And I'm Pence. But you already knew that.  
__**You new around here? How come you're bothering us? Well, keep passing by**__**then. We're busy here.  
**__Hey! Hayner, don't be rude! There's no need to be mean._

_Slow down, Hayner...  
__**You know the rules! Last one there buys ice cream!  
**__What!? Not this again!  
__If you don't want to shell out, I suggest you get running!  
_**I guess...not all friendships fall apart...**

Despite the trains going overhead at regular intervals, the majority of sound heard in the alcove known affectionately as 'The Usual Spot' was laughter. "You should've seen the look on Riku's face when Kairi told him Sora'd asked her out!" Namine exclaimed, holding her stomach as she tried to hold her laughter, and mostly succeeded; the other three, excluding Riku, in the room were not so controlled, "I swear, it looked like he'd swallowed his tongue!" Losing her resolve, the blonde girl joined her new friends in laughter, glancing briefly over at Riku who stood brooding (and not, as Namine has teased him earlier, sulking) against a wall nearby, glancing out through the gaps in the curtain to watch the side street.

Namine remembered these three teens, even if she'd never actually met them in person until now. She had seen memories of them when that bas- uh... DiZ, forced her to wipe Roxas' memories and implant fake ones while she restored Sora's memories. As some of those very memories she'd been trying to restore had merged with Roxas', she'd been forced to go through all of the Nobody's memories to find the ones she needed; she had actually been the one to suggest to DiZ that, in the data world, the three of them should be Roxas' friends, instead of that assh- er... bully Seifer. Namine really was trying to control her language, but it was hard at times.

In any case, though she had been a little jealous at how close the group was, she still thought it would be a good idea to make them friends with Roxas. After all, from what she'd seen when she glanced through his memories, all Roxas had ever really wanted in his life, such that it was, was close friends like these. He'd never cared about not having a heart, because, unlike other Nobodies, he'd never remembered what having a heart felt like, so there was really nothing for him to miss, or even to base a pretence of missing on.

She sighed almost inaudibly, forcing thoughts of Roxas away from her conscious mind. In truth, she still missed him, but she still couldn't resolve, in her own mind, whether she missed Roxas because she actually, truly cared about him, like you'd see in those cheesy love-at-first-sight whirlwind romance movies, or whether she missed him because he was, at the time at least, the closest thing she could've ever hoped to get to Sora. After all, it's not like she had ever really had much contact with him; one of the only reasons she even really knew he existed before she'd had to rewrite his memories is because some of Sora's memories had gone missing, and DiZ had to explain to her where they'd gone.

In any case, she had given her new friends an abridged version of the events that had lead up to Kairi arriving here to meet them the first time, and what had happened after, though explaining how Kairi had fallen through a hole in time and space to arrive here had been tricky; she'd had a hard enough time explaining that they lived 'out of town' without filling them in on the whole 'different worlds' thing; there were some things that a lot of people just couldn't understand, and she'd had enough to explain already without completely destroying their sense of reality. Still, they had accepted her version of events, for now at least, so after letting them fill her in on their own lives these past few months, she had moved on to more recent events.

Like Riku's reaction to Sora and Kairi dating.

Oh, telling that story without saying what Sora and Kairi had _actually_ been doing had been **such** a minefield, especially considering that technically she hadn't really been there, and had to use the excuse that she'd arrived a bit before Riku had. She'd eventually had to admit that Sora and Kairi had been fooling around a bit, trying to downplay it as much as possible to ensure Riku didn't suspect what had _actually_ happened; even now, Riku didn't really believe that the reason Sora was in just his boxers was because he'd decided to go swimming, even if that's what they actually had done after Riku himself left.

Namine didn't know whether to be proud or ashamed of how good she'd gotten at spinning half-truths already, considering she'd only had a heart to call her own for a handful of days now. What she did find sad though was just how important she was finding those half-truths to be.

o-o-o

"Hey, Maleficent, I- Whoa, what happened here babe? You redecorating?"

The dark witch was roused from her musing due to Hades' arrival, glancing slightly over at the Underworld god before replying, "Namine proved decidedly more competent than I expected, based on the surveillance information I had been given." With a wave of her staff and a sickly green light, Maleficent animated a pair of almost ruined chairs, and what remained of her desk, and forced them back into an at-least-temporary working condition, arranging them as they had been, before taking one seat and offering Hades the other.

"That little witch-girl you told me about?" Hades asked with genuine curiosity. "Huh, well whaddya know? Heroes huh? They're always pullin' crap like that."

Scowling, Maleficent remarked, "There are too many inconsistencies. Her rapid increase in magical strength from what Xurik reported I can accept, because, as you have said, that does happen all the time with the so-called 'heroes'. Her ability to summon is also acceptable assuming she found a viable summon crystal amongst the refuse stored in this castle. What I cannot understand is why the ritual failed."

"Wait, back up a minute babe," Hades interjected, "The ritual? The one you and me worked on? You're saying that failed to work?"

Maleficent stomped her staff against the battered floor in anger, replying, "I carried out all the correct preparations, cast the correct spells, chanted the correct incantation, but there was no effect at all. It was like I had aimed the ritual at nothing!"

"Huh, whaddya know?" Hades rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That ritual should work on anyone, 'coz it amplifies and controls the darkness in their heart. And, well, if they don't have a heart, well, Nobodies have darkness laced into their very being, so you know that's gonna work. Hey, you don't think this Namine's some kinda light-based Nobody do you?" Shaking his head and pressing on before she could reply, he added, "Why don't you tell me everything that happened; maybe there's an outside factor we didn't consider."

The witch nodded. "I had the girl trapped within a runic circle, and completed the incantation exactly, yet the ritual had no effect; worse, she used it as a distraction to break the circle and escape. With Plan A a failure, I moved on to Plan B, keeping the girl distracted and trapped here until Sora came to rescue her, like the predictable fool he is. However, before I could use the ritual against him, he escaped, and fled with the girl." Her lips narrowing into a frown, she added, "I will say this though. His control over his darkness exceeds expectations; I witnessed him so steeped in darkness that even the Invisibles would dare not fight him, yet still was he able to push the darkness back and re-cage it."

"Hey, don't you worry about it," Hades shrugged, "When the time comes, I can deal with Sora myself. No matter how much control he has, so long as I have this-" he summoned his dark Keyblade in a flare of blue flame "-I won't have any problem in making him comply with our needs."

Maleficent was not quite so confident, replying, "I truly hope so."

"Hey, you've had a bit of a bad day," Hades commented, banishing his Keyblade, "So allow me to give you some news that will make everything better." Before Hades left that day, a smile had indeed returned to Maleficent's face.

o-o-o

"Sora, are you okay?"

The Keyblade Master felt his Princess's arms wrap around him, his own arms enveloping her form automatically. As much as he would've liked to reassure her, he knew she deserved the truth, so, sighing, he replied, "No, Kai, I'm not." Forcing a smile as he lifted his head to look her in the face, he added, "But I will be."

With a reassuring smile, Kairi slipped out of his grasp, taking his hand in hers and leading him through the ruined mansion until she found a comfortable-looking chair that was in better condition than most of the building. Pushing Sora into it first, she sat down sideways on his lap, resting her head against his chest such that she could hear his heartbeat in her left ear, reassuring her with its consistency; as much as she wanted to reassure Sora right now, she'd had a scare of her own too.

Sora wrapped his arms around her again, one around her lower back, the other resting on her shoulders, holding her head against him, sitting in comfortable, reassuring silence. Since leaving the castle, Sora had rapid teleported Kairi through the streets of the Dark City, before diving through the dark tunnel still connecting it to the Data World DiZ had created. As much as Sora wanted to go to Namine, he wasn't ready to face Riku yet after what had just happened, so they had remained in the simulated Twilight Mansion.

Kairi said nothing, letting Sora collect his thoughts before he finally said, "I'm... I'm scared Kai." He paused, sighing. "I was so close... so close to losing myself to the darkness. I thought I had better control over it, but the second I found out that you'd been taken, I... I almost lost it. If Namine wasn't there, I think I would've attacked Cloud and the others."

Kairi wanted to reassure him, to tell him that she knew he wouldn't do that, but she'd seen him, she'd seen the tail end of his fight with Xurik, and she knew that, while he would never hurt her or Namine, everyone else had no such guarantee. Instead, she changed the subject slightly, asking, "So what do we do now, if Radiant Garden isn't safe anymore? Do we stay in Twilight Town?"

Sora shook his head slightly, before resting his chin against Kairi's head. "No. I don't think anywhere will be safe for too long. As long as we wield Keyblades, the Heartless will find us. Xurik is working for Maleficent, so she has Nobodies on her side as well, not to mention that guy Seymour you mentioned, whatever he is. Plus, I know Hades is working with her again, because I could just feel his darkness everywhere in the Heartless I was fighting."

"So we keep moving then." Kairi knew that Sora was scared. Not just of losing himself to the darkness, but of losing her and Namine. She also knew, however, that she wasn't about to let anyone or anyTHING split them apart. Smiling in what she hoped was a reassuring manner as she tilted her head back to look Sora in the eyes, she remarked, "We could always go visit all the people you've met. You've made so many friends since you first left the islands, and Namine and I would love to meet them all."

Sora smiled slightly, his mood lifting slightly. "I'd like that Kai, but we can't run forever."

"No, but out of everyone you've met in all the worlds, there has to be someone who can help," Kairi replied. "I'm sure there are a lot of people who would help if you asked."

Sora's smile widened, and, Kairi was happy to see, turned more Sora-y. "Yeah, that's a good idea," he nodded, "We should probably start with Olympus; I'm sure Hercules will know of some way to beat Hades. And you're right, we should go visit everyone, if only to make sure they're okay."

Smiling, Kairi asked, "So, you ready to pick up Namine?"

Sora nodded, grinning mischievously as he tickled her under the arms, making her giggle as she jumped off his lap. "Yeah, let's go. I should probably say hi to Hayner, Pence and Olette too before we go."

Putting her hands on her hips, Kairi tried to put on her sternest face, but the image was broken by the grin on her face. "Come on then you lazy bum." She let out a playful shriek as Sora jumped to his feet, chasing her around and trying to tickle her again. It was childish and immature, but right now, it was exactly the sort of thing they needed.

o-o-o

Something was wrong. He couldn't place his finger on what exactly that something was, he just knew it was wrong. Pacing up and down behind his desk in the castle library, King Mickey mused to himself, 'I don't understand it. I brought together all seven Princesses of Heart, who came here of their own free will, and gathered them near the Cornerstone of Light.' Every second trip down-and-back, the diminutive king would pause at the book placed in the reading tray, flipping through a few pages to confirm his thoughts, before continuing his pacing. 'By all accounts, Kingdom Hearts should have appeared as soon as Kairi arrived. So why didn't it?'

His thoughts jumped wildly between topics, from musing about the Princesses and the Cornerstone, to his apprentice's betrayal, to the fallen Keyblade Master. Questions upon questions built up in his mind, and he was no closer to solving any of them. 'How could Riku betray me like that, after everything I have done for him? I was there when he had no one, and he repays me by turning his back on everything I stand for. Sora will bring about ruination to the worlds, I have seen it, and my visions are never wrong. Kairi... Why was Kingdom Hearts not summoned? How was Sora able to come here?' He paused in his pacing as a thought occurred to him, 'Why did Sora leave so quickly?'

It didn't make sense; Sora, Mickey knew from reports from Goofy, Donald, and Jiminy, would sooner cut off his arm than abandon Kairi, yet he had left her here; why? Did he simply not wish to fight Donald and Goofy? If it were that simple, maybe he could control Sora through them. Or did he finally realise that Kairi was safer here than with him? Could it be possible that Sora could actually be saved? The mouse king shook his head, where once he would have dared hope now he dismissed it freely; he had seen that Sora and his new darkness would bring destruction, and he was never wrong.

He resumed pacing again, deep in thought once more. Now, a new, scarier question occurred to him: Could Sora's darkness have already tainted Kairi, robbing her of her abilities as a Princess of Heart? If that were true, it was the king's worst case scenario brought to life. Without all seven Princesses, there would be no way to defeat the darkness until the seventh Princess was born anew, and there was no telling who would inherit the power; Kairi's mother, after all, had never been one of the seven. How Xehanort had discovered Kairi was one was something not even Mickey knew, but before he'd been able to do anything, the villain had cast her off Radiant Garden, and no one had known for certain where she'd ended up until Destiny Islands had fallen to darkness, and Sora had been found.

He paused again, flipping through a few pages of his book until he found the one he needed, before nodding as he found the answer he sought. The Keyblade Master and the seven Princesses of Heart were intrinsically linked, though what, exactly, this link was no one had yet discovered. Xehanort, for example, had discovered that he could use Kairi to find the Keyblade Master, but it had taken him ten years to succeed, and had only managed to succeed at all because he had steeped himself in darkness and willingly became a Heartless, allowing him to travel through the dark space between spaces he had sent Kairi along so many years earlier.

Mickey frowned in thought. Xehanort, who had steeped himself in darkness, had been the first person on record to ever come as close to attaining Kingdom Hearts as he did. There was only one person who had ever gotten closer, a man whose name Mickey did not know, save that he was there during the fight to bring him down. His frown deepened when he realised that he had never lain eyes upon the mastermind behind everything, he had only ever seen, and fought, the man's apprentice. A boy named Vanitas.

With a gasp, Mickey suddenly realised exactly what was wrong. Vanitas, a being of such great darkness that he made Maleficent look tame, looked almost exactly like Sora.

o-o-o

"So how long are you guys gonna be in town anyway?" Olette asked, leaning back against an arm of the old couch to look directly at Namine. "If you have a few days we're on vacation until next weekend, so it'd be great to hang out."

"Plus, there's a Struggle Contest this weekend," Hayner remarked, "And Seifer's been chompin' at the bit to prove he's better than Sora after what happened the last time he was here. Me, I want to see Seifer get beaten."

Namine opened her mouth to reply, but before she could utter a sound Riku cut her off, remarking coldly, "We can't. We've wasted enough time here as it is."

Shooting to her feet, and trying to ignore the gasps of shock from her new friends, Namine fixed Riku with a glare, barking, "Riku! That was **so** rude and _totally_ uncalled for! What the heck if your problem?"

"Right now?" Riku replied snarkily, turning to face her, and seemingly unphased by her glare. "You are. You do remember that you have people trying to capture or kill you, right? We're not here on vacation, we're on the run from very powerful people, some who want you alive, and some who'd probably be just as happy to get you dead. We're supposed to be laying low."

"I'm not an idiot," Namine scowled, "I know exactly what the situation is. However, in case you've been too bust brooding to notice, we _have_ been laying low. The only people who even know we're here are in this room, and they haven't left since we got here. Plus, the only people who even know this place exists are us, these guys, Sora, and Kairi. No one's gonna find us here."

"And maybe you didn't realise Namine, but while you've been gasbagging with your new buddies," he paused, turning to them and adding, "I'm sorry, I'm sure you're all nice guys... uh, and girl..." Shaking his head, he returned to his original point, "Anyway, while we've been here, five hours have passed." He paused briefly as Namine gave out a choking gasp. "Sora should've long been back with Kairi by now, which means something has gone wrong, and he told me that if anything went wrong, were to fall back to the train station and take the purple train out of town. So we're going."

"I'm not going to abandon them and run away like a coward!" Namine shouted back, summoning the Kingdom Key in a flash of light and gripping it in both hands, holding it low and to the side like Sora used to, "I understand why you may be all too willing to cast them away **again**, but-"

"You understand NOTHING!" Riku roared, throwing his arm to one side as he summoned Way to the Dawn and struck it against the nearby wall in the same motion. "After Castle Oblivion I swore I would do everything in my power to protect Sora and Kairi, in penance for what I had done. I even gave up my very body to help him, so don't you DARE doubt my resolve! I and my Guardian will continue to protect Sora, but I can't do that and protect you at the same time. So were are going to fall back to the train, I am going to get you to safety in Yen Sid's Tower, and then, I am going to go rescue Sora _again_ on my own." Pointing his Keyblade at her, he added with an air of finality, "And if I have to knock you out to do it, so be it."

Releasing her Keyblade to hold it in a single hand, Namine narrowed her eyes at him, remarking, "You wouldn't dare." The two continued to stare at one another, Riku refusing to back down, Namine determined not to let him win. She could hear noises around her in the background, but she shut them out, maintaining her focus on the contest of wills; a contest that was abruptly broken when Riku surged forward, Way to the Dawn slicing through the air. With an 'eep' of fright, she squeezed her eyes tight, raising her Keyblade before her and hoping it wouldn't hurt too much, but the strike never came; instead, she felt the displaced air as Riku raced past her, and the sound of metal hitting something not so solid behind her, followed quickly by a sound she recognized. The sound of a Nobody shattering back into nothingness.

Spinning around and opening her eyes again, the blonde girl saw Riku behind her, Keyblade still held in the killing strike that had saved her. Righting himself, he intoned, "There was a Dusk behind you; if you weren't so busy trying and failing to intimidate me you would've heard it." Banishing his Keyblade, he finally turned to face her, his face neutral as he asked, "Still think no one could find us here?"

o-o-o

The quote 'secure dignitaries quarters' underneath Disney Castle had been fairly quiet ever since Namine had left, and Jasmine and Belle with her. Aurora and Cinderella were sitting in easy chairs over in one corner, softly discussing life married to their respective princes. Snow White was relaxing in a rocking chair, doing knitting of all things. Alice, however, had returned to the book she'd been reading for the past few days, but she found she couldn't concentrate.

Her mind kept returning to when Namine, disguised as Kairi, had said 'Sora is still Sora'. She still remembered Sora from when she had first met him in the Red Queen's Court, when he had come to her defence simply because she needed someone to help her. He had asked for no reward, and only ever did what needed to be done. She kept trying to resolve the Sora she remembered with the 'agent of darkness' that this mouse king kept going on about, and she found herself drawing a blank. The Sora she remembered was brave, selfless, and heroic, which was almost the exact opposite of what the mouse was saying he was. Now, she might have been young, but Alice honestly didn't believe anyone could change that much in so short a time.

"I wonder," she mused aloud over the top of her book, "If Namine might not have been correct all along."

"What was that dear?" Snow White asked, setting her knitting to one side.

Alice blushed slightly, realising that she had spoken out loud, and her blush only worsened when she noticed that Snow White's question had drawn the attention of the two chatting Princesses in the corner, meaning all eyes in the room were now on her. Realising that, now that she had spoken, they would keep asking her until she answered, the young blonde felt she was committed, setting her book aside as she replied, "W-well, I remember Master Sora from when I first met him in Wonderland. He was so... brave, standing up to the Red Queen when no one else was willing to help me, a-and he did everything he could to save me. I just... Well, I do not believe the mouse when he says that Sora has become the opposite of everything I knew about him." Glancing between the three other Princesses of Heart, she added, "I-I know I do not know the mouse as well as you do, but I know Master Sora better than I know him, and I do not believe the mouse is telling the truth. One like Sora could simply not change so much in so little time."

The three older Princesses glanced at each other for a moment, before Aurora spoke for the three of them, saying, "This isn't the first time something like this has happened."

"Anyone can be corrupted," Snow White added.

Tilting her head to one side, much like a cat that couldn't quite understand what it was looking at, Alice asked, "Whatever do you mean?"

Sighing as she thought back to the time in question, Aurora continued, "It was around twelve years ago. At the time, the worlds were still separate, with travel between them almost unheard of. In fact, there was only truly one world that knew other worlds existed. The denizens of that world were an Order of Keyblade Masters, dedicated towards ensuring the balance of the worlds remained, as they had for generations. However, everything soon changed when one of the Keyblade Masters fell into darkness. I don't know the specifics of what happened, save what Mickey Mouse, not then King of Disney Castle, travelled to each affected world using his Star Fragment to ensure those who had been affected by this fallen Master were okay. It was then he informed me that the Order was gone, their world lost to darkness, and the Keyblade Masters themselves missing or dead, save himself, and the one who taught him."

"Over the space of less than a year," Cinderella continued, "An Order of Keyblade Masters that had survived for generations was lost, when one of them fell into darkness. And now, it would seem, it has happened again."

Head still tilted to one side, a finger on her chin in thought, Alice asked, "Could all of what you just said not have happened to the mouse?" When the three other Princesses looked at her like she'd grown another head, she clarified, "I mean, what if it is not Master Sora who has sided against the light, and the mouse is telling us it is so to turn us against him?"

The other Princesses wanted to refute this statement, claiming that it was not possible, but they realised that it _was_ possible; as Snow White had said, _anyone_ could be corrupted. Aurora, however, the only one of the three who had personally been affected by the first fallen Keyblade Master, replied, "I believe that possibility rests too far in the realm of the bizarre. King Mickey does what he does to protect everyone from the darkness."

Alice stood from her seat, casually straightening her dress, as she remarked, "Unfortunately, many mad people seem to think that what they are doing is perfectly reasonable. I think it is about time we departed this place."

Before any of the Princesses could respond to that sentiment, the door unlatched noisily, swinging open to herald the very subject of the discussion, King Mickey Mouse himself, who, looking quite haunted, glanced around the room quickly before asking, "Where's Kairi?"

Feeling somewhat obligated to answer truthfully, Cinderella replied, "Princess Kairi was never here."

Mickey's eyes widened slightly as he shifted his gaze towards her. "She arrived here this morning, not eight hours ago. I didn't imagine it, Sora attacked not long after."

Shaking her head, Cinderella explained, "That wasn't Princess Kairi. That was her sister, Namine."

Hearing that name, Mickey suddenly looked like he'd seen Death himself, and felt his icy breath. "Impossible..." he gasped, moments before he started pacing back and forth, muttering to himself about 'Kairi' and 'lost her heart' and 'Sora'; quite frankly, whatever he was rambling about made no sense to the four Princesses.

"I'm sorry Your Highness, but what seems to be the problem?" Snow White interjected; despite being a Princess herself, technically, she could never think of herself as such. "Namine came here on behalf of her sister to inform us, and you so we were told, of the state of Master Sora and Princess Kairi."

"Kairi doesn't **have** a sister!" Mickey barked, a tone that sounded odd in his high-pitched squeaky voice. "Namine is her Nobody, and she shouldn't even exist!"

"Why good Sir Mouse, I dare say that is entirely uncalled for!" Alice retorted indignantly, "Miss Namine came here in good faith, and she was most certainly not one of those beastly Nobodies. Her heart was pure and true, we all felt it."

"She's a _Nobody_, she doesn't _have_ a heart," Mickey spoke slowly, as though to a particularly dim-witted child, before noticing something. "Where are Belle and Jasmine? Where is Namine, for that matter?"

"They left," Cinderella replied smoothly, "Belle felt the Beast would worry if she were gone too long, while Jasmine felt Genie was more than enough to protect her, so they left with Namine when she did, through a portal of some sort."

"A corridor of darkness," Mickey remarked firmly, grimacing. Cinderella opened her mouth to correct him, as it was most certainly not the same sort of portal Master Riku had used, when the king continued, "So now I must save them from themselves before I can focus on the task at hand, must I? Is it not bad enough I have yet to locate Kairi?"

"Kairi is fine, Namine believed she was perfectly safe with Master Sora, and we all believe her," Aurora commented, though it seemed to have about as much affect as talking to a wall as far as calming the irate mouse king down, if not worse; well, maybe irate was not the correct word, but it fit close enough.

"Good Sir Mouse," Alice spoke up, breaking Mickey out of his not-so-inner monologue, "As Miss Belle and Miss Jasmine have done, I wish to return home. The White Rabbit will worry so if I miss another un-birthday party."

He stared at her as though she had just requested he cut on himself for her amusement. "Do you not understand what's going on? Do any of you understand what I'm doing? Am I truly the only one to see the looming threat. You're **not** **safe** out there, not with the likes of Sora still running free and uncontained."

"Maybe not," Alice retorted haughtily, "But I feel less safe here than I do in the Red Queen's court."

Mickey just shook his head sadly, walking out without a word and closing, then locking, the door behind him, calling in through the bars, "You'll thank me for protecting you one day. And I aim to ensure you live long enough to feel that way." He was gone without another word, leaving the Princesses to wonder just who, exactly, had their best interests at heart.

o-o-o

Driving Way to the Dawn through the head of the last remaining Dusk, but unwilling to risk actually banishing the enchanted weapon lest more of them show up, Riku turned his beyond-annoyed glare towards Namine, barking, "Hurry up! We haven't got much time before the next wave arrives. Now that we've _finally_ made it to the station we have _got_ to get inside before more show up. If we're lucky - and based on what I've seen so far I very much doubt that - the train to Yen Sid's Tower will already be there, and if not, we're likely going to have to fight off another wave while we wait, so let's GO!"

Non-responsive to Riku's demands, Namine walked closer to the edge of Station Plaza, gazing off into the distance. Banishing one of her Keyblades, she closed her eyes, placing one hand over her heart as she concentrated.

Rushing over to her, Riku hissed, "What the hell are you doing? We don't have time for this."

"We have to go back," Namine replied suddenly, opening her eyes again.

Growling slightly, and restraining himself from hitting the girl just barely, Riku shouted incredulously, "What?! The train is right here!"

"Yes," Namine retorted sharply, pointing back the other way, "But Sora and Kairi are that way."

Spluttering, he asked, "How could you possibly know?"

"Our hearts are connected," Namine replied. "If I try hard enough, I can point them out from anywhere, even other worlds."

"And you're just telling me this now... why?"

Rolling her eyes, she replied, "Well, the constant swarms of Nobodies were not particularly conductive to concentrating now were they Riku?" Closing her eyes again, she added, "If I had to guess, I'd say... the Sandlot."

Groaning in annoyance, Riku asked, "So, now what? You want to go all the way back to pretty much exactly where we started, fighting past who knows how many enemies in the process?"

Namine scowled slightly, possibly at Riku's attitude. "Can't you just open a corridor there or something?"

"I have to know the area I'm travelling to well, and I wasn't paying much attention last time."

Biting back a frustrated scream, Namine bit her words. "You are really pissing me off today. Why is it you're _less_ annoying when you're not whiny and emo?" Before he could answer, she banished her other Keyblade, closing her eyes and concentrating again, before her form disappeared in a flash of light, replaced by a second Riku, before 'he' held a hand to one side, opening a Corridor of Darkness. "There. Problem solved."

Gaping slightly, having never seen her, or anyone, do this before, Riku asked, "How... No, why did you do that?"

"I can't open corridors in my normal form, I'm not a Nobody anymore. And the 'how' is complicated, so we really don't have time to chat now do we?"

Hearing Namine's voice come out of a replica of his own mouth was fairly disturbing. Groaning in frustration again, Riku asked, "So you could've done this at any time?"

"I don't know the station well enough, but I spent five hours paying attention to my surroundings in the Usual Spot. And, just like Sora's Drives, I can only do this for so long, so are you going to go through, or would you rather walk back?" Deciding discretion is the better part of valour in this case, Riku entered the Corridor without a word, Namine following behind him. Arriving back where their escape had begun, Namine wasn't sure whether to be disappointed Hayner's gang weren't around any more, or relieved they were gone, but either way, she closed the Corridor of Darkness behind them, shifting back to herself in another flash of light. "Come on, they're close."

Brushing the curtain aside, the two raced the short distance towards the Sandlot, where it quickly became obvious why Sora and Kairi had been here so long; the entire lot was swarming with Dusks and Creepers. While Sora could easily have handled this many on his own, judging by how he weaved between them, but he was forced to stop the attack every so often and fall back to protect Kairi, was wasn't nearly so experienced at fighting _period_, let alone fighting the unpredictable Nobodies. Namine rushed forward to help Kairi, the two, when working together, about as well protected as either of the two more competent fighters.

Hearing the sound of dying Nobodies behind him, Sora called out, "What took you guys so long?"

Riku replied dryly, "We went for the train, but traffic was a nightmare. Then Namine decided at the last minute she'd rather not ride the rails, so we had to start over and, voila, here you are."

With two Keyblade Masters, both highly experienced in killing Nobodies, and with Two Keyblade Apprentices, trained well enough to protect each other even if they themselves couldn't deal much damage, the minor legion of Nobodies was quickly defeated. The second she realised the coast was clear, Namine instantly banished her Keyblades, almost tackling Kairi to the ground in excitement as she glomped her. Smiling at her sister as Kairi hugged her back, Namine exclaimed, "Ooh, I was so worried about you. You're not hurt are you?"

"Nothing a Cure spell can't fix," Kairi smiled back.

As the two girls began to jabber back and forth about... whatever they were talking about, Riku cast his gaze between them, before turning towards Sora and arching an eyebrow in question, with a hint of accusation. Smiling weakly, Sora just shrugged slightly; no doubt Riku would have many, many questions, but quite frankly, Sora wasn't ready to give out those answers. Fortunately, Riku seemed to understand, nodding once before asking, and cutting off the girls' talk, "So, where to now? Do we take the train, stick with the original plan?"

"We need to keep moving," Sora replied, "And Master Yen Sid's Tower is as good a start as any."

"No time like the present then." When Riku started to walk off, however, there was the swirl of displaced air as Nobodies phased in, a quartet of Samurai appearing near each of the three exits out, before drawing their twin swords. "Nice trick Sora, but these guys aren't really much help _now_, unless you expect further trouble." Ignoring Sora's protests, Riku continued walking towards Market Street, only for the nearest Samurai group to swipe at him, making him jump back in shock. "What the hell? Why did you-"

"I didn't summon them Riku," Sora cut him off tersely, resummoning his Keyblades, "And they're not listening to me any more."

"Of course they're not," A new voice remarked, as a Corridor of Darkness opened, heralding a black-cloaked figure, the hood shrouding his face. "Nobodies only ever truly listen to other Nobodies, and they truly despise the Heartless."

Spinning to face this newcomer, and keeping the girls between Riku and himself. "You're not Xurik," Sora remarked, confirming to Riku that he did, in fact, have a Nobody, "So what do you want?"

"What do I want?" The figure replied, a cold mocking air to its tone, "Why Sora, you, of all people, should know exactly what I want. I came for what's mine." He threw his hands out one at a time, darkness pooling in his right hand, light in his left, which cleared to reveal a pair of hauntingly familiar weapons. "I came for my heart!"

Finding all the provocation he needed, Sora rushed forward, locking Keyblades with the figure in the Organization cloak, before suddenly flipping backwards, kicking the mystery man beneath the chin as he did so. The man's head snapped back, knocking his hood off, and as the figure straightened up, revealing a familiar mop of sandy-blonde hair, Sora found his fears entirely justified.

Namine gasped, equal parts shock and fear gripping her heart. "Roxas?!"

* * *

Author's Notes

Wow, that scene with the Princesses wound up a lot longer than I thought it would...

Well, it's been entirely too long since I last updated. I could make excuses, but the truth of the matter is, Final Fantasy 13 was released, and it wouldn't let go of my soul until I'd finished it. Then, to make matters worse, I finished it just in time for Sony to re-release Final Fantasy 8 for download from the PlayStation Shop, so that took much of my freed attention.

Hopefully, this upload will make up in some small way for the delay, and I hope to have the next chapter out a lot faster than I did this one.


	18. I Am Me

--- Shades of Grey ---

Chapter 17 - I Am Me

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

_

* * *

_

Why are you trying to stop me?  
**Because I want back the rest of Sora's memories.**

_I'm going to set Kingdom Hearts free! Then everything can go back to the way it was!_ Me, and Axel, and...and her can go on having ice cream together.  
**Her? You mean ____? It's a struggle just to remember the name now, isn't it? Either way, I can't let you go doing anything crazy.  
**_I have to find this Sora person, and freeing Kingdom Hearts is the only way! I want ____ back. I want my life back!  
_**If you try and make contact with Kingdom Hearts, the last thing you'll get is your life back. The Organization will destroy you.  
**_Shut up!_

**So it's true. You really are his Nobody. Guess DiZ was right after all.  
**_What are you talking about? I am me! Nobody else!_

_Riku, please! You have to stop him!  
__How many times do I have to beat you?_

**DiZ...he could feel Sora.  
**_**Oh, he told you how he "felt," did he? Ridiculous. A Nobody cannot feel anything.  
**_**If he had met Sora, things might have been different.**

Riku tried to shut out the memories of the last time he had seen Roxas as he was now; there were too many problems in the present to dig up more in the past. From his vantage point, Riku could see that Sora's knuckles had gone white on his Keyblades, his grip so tight he was beginning to cut off his own circulation slightly. In the wake of her cry, Namine had simply collapsed, eyes wide in what he guessed was some combination of shock and fear, her Keyblades vanishing in twin flashes of light as she began hyperventilating. Kairi, seeing her fall, had rushed over towards her, crouching down and wrapping her free arm around the blonde girl in a show of support.

Roxas, however, hadn't moved, and thus far, neither had the dozen Samurai he'd brought with him. Riku winced slightly when he realised that killing those Samurai was no doubt going to be his responsibility, as neither of the girls was in any condition to fight, while Sora seemed a bit too preoccupied with Roxas, and justifiably so. Idly, part of Riku's brain not focused on the coming conflict mused, 'If this sort of shit happens to Sora as often as I've seen, maybe I should consider myself lucky the Keyblade chose him instead of me. I think I would've gone insane by now.' Another part quietly considered, 'I really shouldn't be so surprised Roxas' separated from Sora. After all, Namine did.'

"How are you here?" Sora asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Come now Sora," Roxas replied, his voice level, "Surely by now you know how Nobodies are created?"

Sora scowled slightly. "But how is that possible? You and Aros sacrificed your individuality to bind Hades' darkness in my heart."

"I wouldn't know anything about that," Roxas half-shrugged, "I don't remember anything from before I woke up, again. However, the fact I'm here would suggest this 'Aros' and I failed."

"What do you mean you don't remember anything 'again'?" Riku asked speculatively, "If you don't remember before, how would you know it's happened 'again'?"

"Because this time, I had something to base my existence on besides a name and a number," Roxas remarked with a tone that could almost be said to be snide.

Sora didn't need it spelled out for him any further. Kairi had already told him that she'd found Roxas' old journal, but that Seymour had taken it off her. "So. Seymour sent you then did he? Or was it Xurik? What lies did they spin to get you to do their dirty work?"

"Seymour simply told me the truth: you have my heart, and with it, I will be whole again," Roxas replied, dropping into his fighting stance. "He didn't need to tell me anything else. I can sense it from here, the darkness within you. As I am a Nobody, you are a Heartless, and my Keyblade will banish the darkness binding **my** heart inside **your** body." With a slight twitch of his head, Roxas gave attack orders to the Samurai, before charging towards Sora.

o-o-o

Donald Duck was worried. While this wasn't exactly a new concept for him, and neither was the subject of his worry, the **context** of that worry _was_. Donald, for all his formality, considered himself Mickey Mouse's friend first, and King Mickey of Disney Castle's court magician second, having known Mickey long before he attained the throne. As such, when Minnie informed Daisy, who in turn informed Donald, that she was worried about her husband, it fell to Donald to find out if this worry was unfounded or not, and it was the thought that it might not which worried him.

The context of his worry? How right Mickey was in his crusade against Sora.

That the new 'Deep Darkness' introduced to the worlds was a bad thing was undisputed, but while Riku, before his defection, had reported that the source of this Darkness was Hades, Mickey seemed convinced that Sora, if not the keystone of the whole thing, was still a major factor, and thus, needed to be 'removed from the equation'; the exact context of _that_ phrase was still being contested. The Princesses of Heart, Alice the most vocal of the four remaining, and Jasmine and Belle before her, argued that Sora was no threat to the worlds, and was, in fact, much more likely to be helping save them than helping destroy them.

Donald honestly didn't know who to believe. He had always believed that, if he was forced to choose between Mickey and anyone else, except possibly Daisy, he would've chosen Mickey; he'd actually done it once before, when Riku took Sora's Keyblade, following the 'key' as per Mickey's orders instead of staying with his friend. The Mickey he had seen in confrontation with Sora in the throne room, however, wasn't the Mickey he remembered; the Mickey he'd befriended all those years ago would've have kept the Princesses of Heart locked up near the Cornerstone, being a firm believer in not meddling with the affairs of other worlds.

At some point in the last six months, he'd changed. While Donald had no doubts that Mickey was still very much on the side of the Light, his methods of dealing with the Darkness had changed. He'd become more proactive, for one thing, believing that they could no longer sit back and fight the Darkness as it showed itself, and instead, now needed to take the fight to those who would threaten the Light. Another change was that, where before he would have given his all to ensure everyone would survive, he seemed, while certainly not eager, more understanding of the fact that, with the upcoming war, not everyone may return home.

Having seen the fallout of the incident twelve years ago, Donald was inclined to agree, though Goofy would probably be horrified to hear him say it; he always did have a bit of a soft heart, especially for Captain of the Guard, which was probably counterbalanced by his exceptionally hard head. There _was_ a war coming, and in war, sometimes, if not often, people died. In fact, Donald could agree completely with this new Mickey's opinion, with a single partial exception: the issue of Sora.

When he'd first met the spiky-haired brunette, Donald had written him off as an ignorant buffoon they'd need to keep alive until they found the King, and he hadn't given the boy much credit. In the months leading up to the fall of Ansem, however, he had seen that, while sheltered from living on Destiny Islands all his life, Sora understood people exceptionally well, and through countless battles, saving and being saved by him, they had forged a friendship. A friendship that had been tested when the consequences of Sora sacrificing himself for Kairi had come to light.

When he'd first seen Sora change into that Anti-Form, it had taken all of his self control not to destroy it; it was only his friendship with Sora, and the fact the Anti-Form was more interested in ripping apart the Heartless and Nobodies, that had stayed his hand. He saw that day that when Sora had fallen into darkness for those minutes it had taken them to evacuate to the doors of Hollow Bastion, Sora's heart had been stained irrevocably by Darkness. After that, he'd noticed that Sora's personality had shifted slightly, and where before he would've just written off his mood swings as part of the teen having likely undergone puberty while asleep for that year, now he saw them for what they were; signs that Darkness had infected him.

When the King had reported that Sora had fallen into Darkness, as hurt and sad as he'd been, he couldn't honestly say he'd been shocked. He had, after all, witnessed with his own eyes Sora stabbing himself with Rik- uh, Ansem's Keyblade, opening his heart to Darkness in order to free Kairi's. He knew that, if it was for Kairi, Sora would have done anything, without question; a fact he was highly grateful the Organization didn't capitalize more on. After all, if Xemnas had told Sora that Kairi's survival depended on him tearing down Disney Castle brick-by-brick, Donald was one hundred percent certain he would've done it.

Still, as much as he was ready to believe that Sora could and would give in to Darkness for Kairi, the Sora he had seen in the throne room was not the pure evil monster that Mickey had painted him as. He'd changed, that much was certain, as his previously rare anger had proven, and he was certainly 'darker' now than Donald remembered, but he hadn't attacked the Castle to destroy the Bastion of Light; he'd come for Kairi, something that Donald knew he would as soon as he'd heard Kairi had been brought in. Having witnessed Sora's power _before_ Mickey had reported him as an Agent of Darkness, the court magician knew that, if Sora had wished it, every guard that had tried to stop him would be dead, and not merely knocked unconscious with a few fractures or the occasional broken bone; and that was not including any power increase he had received since his fall.

He honestly wasn't sure who was right and who was wrong. Ever since the Princesses had explained that it had never been Kairi here, but had instead been Namine, and young Alice had begun demanding quite loudly that she be allowed to return home, the King had sequestered himself in his library. For the past two days, the King had seen nobody but his Queen, who had brought him all his meals, all others being turned away; hence Minnie's concern. Today, however, he had left the library, heading towards the Gummi Hangar with a purpose. Which is where Donald found him, nearing completion of the latest in Disney Castle's fleet of Gummi ships.

"What can I do for you Donald?" King Mickey asked, without turning around. No doubt the sound of his webbed feet had long warned Mickey of his approach; those ears weren't just for show after all.

There were many replies Donald could have given to that question, but of all that came to his mind, the question he asked was, "When do we leave Your Majesty?" As Mickey paused, shock warring with a smile on his face, Donald made his mind up. If there was to be conflict again between Mickey and Sora, Donald would still side with Mickey, regardless of whether he was right or not, because that's what friends do for their friends.

He would just do his best to make sure Mickey didn't kill his other friend, darkness or no darkness.

o-o-o

"Ugh, what happened?" Holding one hand over his eyes, Sora forced himself to sit up, hissing in pain. "I feel like I've been trampled by a Behemoth or three."

"I was hoping you could tell me Sora," A male voice replied. It took him a moment before his head cleared enough to realise it was Riku. "What do you remember from the fight?"

Parting his fingers slightly, wincing as the bright light assaulted his eyes, Sora groaned, the pounding in his head making it hard to think. "I remember... Roxas charging for me, leaving you and the girls for the Samurai. I remember you shouting to Kairi to get Namine out of there." Eyes shooting open, Sora spun to face Riku, momentarily ignoring his headache as he asked hurriedly, "Are the girls okay?"

"Yeah Sora, they're fine," Riku replied, and Sora breathed a sigh of relief. "Somehow I don't understand, Kairi, for lack of a better term, absorbed Namine, summoning a second Keyblade to fight with. Huh, now that I think of it, it's kind of like how your Drives used to work isn't it? How come Kairi can do that?"

Sora shrugged slightly, lying down again; glancing up, he could see the weathered ceiling he recognized from the Abandoned Mansion. "Dunno. She's always been able to meld with Namine, ever since the two separated again." Twisting his head to glance at Riku again, he added, "So where are they?"

"I figured it would be better for them _not_ to sit around waiting for you to recover, so they're out shopping with Olette." As he saw the panic rising in Sora's face at them being out there on their own he added, "Namine can turn into whoever she wants, and Kairi can turn invisible. They'll be fine. Now, focus, back to the fight: what happened?"

"Ugh, fine," Resting one arm over his eyes again, the pounding in his head resuming, Sora continued, "I remember switching to Valour Form, thinking I needed the speed and power it provided, but confident that I didn't need my magic; after all, I'd fought him before hadn't I?" He shook his head, slowly so as to not make his headache worse, "Roxas fought nothing like he did before. Last time I fought him his style was all about strength and speed, and using Light magic. The way he used to fight... I inherited that style when I gained Final Form. This time, he was all speed, much more than I thought possible, but his attacks were weak. He fought..." He blinked rapidly, his brain slowly processing. "He fought like me. Like how I fought against Xurik."

"Well, he _is_ you," Riku pointed out, "I saw the old Roxas fight a long time ago, back when he used to use just the Kingdom Key, and he fought a lot like you used to, only more aggressive. Maybe, even without his memories, he still inherits your fighting style, before adapting it as he grows stronger. I know the Roxas I fought and captured was different to the one I saw fighting six months earlier, and he sounds different again to the Roxas you fought, which... When did that happen again?"

"When I approached The Castle That Never Was," Sora replied, his head clearing finally, "I realised after, once you informed me that Roxas was my Nobody, that the whole battle was inside me. Roxas was already part of me by then wasn't he? The fight was him testing whether I was 'worthy', or some nonsense."

Shaking his head, Riku remarked, "We're getting off topic again, then what happened? All I remember is fending off a half dozen Samurai, keeping one eye on Kairi in case she faltered, then they all just disappeared, and we turned around in time to watch you pass out."

"I'm honestly not sure Reek," Sora sighed, "All I remember is Roxas and I fighting, and then he manages to catch me with a lucky hit to the temple with the back of his Oathkeeper. I hurled Guardian Soul at him, knocking Oblivion out of his hand and snatching it before it could hit the ground, and he managed to snap Guardian Soul as it returned, before we locked blades again. Then he just blinked slightly, stepped back, and said 'This isn't right'. After that, he just unsummoned his weapons, Oblivion disappearing from my hand, before throwing Guardian Soul back to me, opening a Corridor of Darkness, and vanishing. Then darkness."

"That's it?" Riku looked at him, eyebrows askew, "You just passed out for no reason?"

"None that I can..." He trailed off, a faint memory returning, "Well, I vaguely remember Valour Form taking more energy than usual to maintain, so I started using my mana to stay in it, but that shouldn't have made me pass out; I've run out of both plenty of times without losing consciousness." Scrubbing a hand through his hair, he asked, "How long was I out anyway?"

"Two days," Riku replied. "If you hadn't woken up today, the girls agreed that we'd take you to Yen Sid, see if he knew what was wrong." Pausing as he stood up, stretching his arms up and cracking his shoulder joints, he added, "Might still be a good idea to pay him a visit anyway."

Before Sora could even formulate a reply, let alone open his mouth to issue it, the door burst open, admitting two almost identical girls who remarked as one, "We have a problem." Then, seeing Sora was awake, they proceeded to full body tackle him, knocking him off the backless couch they'd had him resting on for the past two days in their excitement, and landing on top of him as he dropped onto the wooden floor. As the recovering Keyblade Master caught his breath, the two began to talk over each other, babbling a mile a minute about how worried they were about him.

Clearing his throat, and cutting off the girls' rambling, Riku asked, "The problem?"

"Mickey's in town," Kairi remarked without fanfare.

"And he's looking for you Riku," Namine added in a similar tone, both sisters upset about having their attention pulled from Sora.

"What?" Sora asked urgently, "He didn't see you did he?"

Kairi just smiled, rolling her eyes good-naturedly as Namine tapped him mock-angrily on the head. "Please, give us more credit than that."

"How did he find me?" Riku asked, starting to pace back and forth across the room.

As Riku began to not-so-quietly hyperventilate, Sora gently pushed the girls back, sitting up and resting his back against the couch behind him, before Sora gently pulled the girls to rest against him. "Tell us everything you saw."

o-o-o

* About twenty minutes ago *

"My mum swears by this moisturiser," Olette remarked, plucking a bottle off the nearby shelf, "And she has to travel around a lot for work, so it should be perfect for you guys. I mean, sometimes she's away from home for up to a month or two at a time."

"You must miss her," Namine remarked; having only really had a heart for... four days now? Namine was still adapting and learning how to deal with her emotions. Annoyingly, for her, she'd found she was quite the empath, so she tried to make sure the people around her were cheerful.

"Yeah," the brunette nodded, smiling slightly, "But when she's home she spends enough time with me to make up for it. I mean, I think if her work was spread out more evenly, she'd work about as much as a normal nine-to-fiver, so because her work tends to clump together, it gives her more off-time." Shaking her head slightly, she asked, "What do your parents do?"

"Our dad's the mayor," Kairi replied, rolling her eyes slightly, "So he's almost never around. Because of that, mum tries to be there as often as she can, but she doesn't want to just be a housewife, so she works part time at a bakery."

Grinning slightly, Namine adds, "Sora's mother actually owns the place she works. The two of them have been friends since primary school apparently, so when Sora's father disappeared during a storm one year, she did what she could to-"

Trailing off sharply, Namine vaguely heard Olette offering her condolences over Sora's father, but that was pushed to the back of her mind as her ears picked something up from a nearby stall, in the next aisle of the markets. A frighteningly familiar, high-pitched voice asking someone, "Excuse me, I'm looking for an old friend of mine. About seventeen, fairly tall, silverish hair. I think he's travelling with a brunette boy and a pair of girls. Do you know where I could find them?"

'Oh shit!' Glancing quickly at Kairi, the blonde didn't need to say anything to know that Kairi had heard the voice as well; the voice of Mickey Mouse. When Olette glanced at them, curious as to the source of the horror and fear in their eyes and on their faces, Namine responded with a short stint of pantomime: first, pointing in the direction of the voice; next, pointing two fingers at her eyes, before panning said fingers around the area; third, pointing between herself and Kairi; finally, shaking her head and waving her arms furiously. The message, she hoped, was clear: that person is looking for us, and we very much don't want that.

Smiling in understanding, the brunette nodded once before starting to walk off casually. Both sisters stared after her, slightly worried, before she turned around again and mouthed 'trust me'. While they did want to trust their new friend, they still began moving away in the other direction, taking care not to draw too much attention to themselves, Kairi casually flipping the white hood of her cloak up as they considered their options. Kairi couldn't use her magic, because that required her to summon her Keyblade, and Namine still had trouble mimicking other people without likewise causing a flash of light and drawing attention to themselves, so for now they were kind of stuck; they'd been relying on seeing anyone who might be after them coming long before they got this close.

Still edging away slowly, the girls could hear another voice, one they quickly identified as Goofy, asking, "Uh, Yer Majesty, how do you know he's even here?"

"I can sense Riku," Mickey replied simply, "Ever since I almost attacked Riku because he had the appearance of Ansem, I made sure to memorise what his life wave felt like, so I wouldn't make the same mistake again. As a result, if I meditate I can sense what world Riku is on. Unfortunately, that doesn't help me pinpoint _where_ on the world he may be, though it does help me see through any illusions he may have masking him to his true face."

"Um, excuse me?" Kairi and Namine panicked slightly when they heard Olette's voice from the same aisle Mickey was in. "Oh, you're Sora's friends aren't you? Is that who you're looking for?"

Shocked slightly at this turn of events, Mickey nonetheless replied simply, "Yes, actually. And his friend Riku. Do you know where we could find them?"

"Hmm... Well, last time I saw them was around the Sandlot, but I think I remember them saying something about the train." The girls could almost hear the smile in Olette's voice as she added, "I think Sora wanted to show Kairi the view from Sunset Hill. It's so romantic."

"Thank you for your help." Turning her head slightly and peeking out of her hood, Kairi could see Mickey heading off, Goofy and Donald trailing after him, the latter having not spoken.

Moments later, Olette walked past, making it seem like she wasn't talking to them as she remarked quietly, "The next train to Sunset Hill isn't for half an hour, 'coz one just left. That means, if he bought it, you've got maybe an hour, tops, to get out of here, assuming he takes the train there and back. Less if he decides to just use the underground." Making promises to catch up again when things were less hectic, the two girls quickly left, making their way for the mansion, and hoping Sora could be moved safely.

o-o-o

* Now *

"He can _track_ me?" Were it a less serious situation, the expression on Riku's face would have been rather comical, looking like his eyes were about to fall out of his head; actually, even now, Sora mused, it was still funny. "Well, _that's_ a problem."

Glancing at the girls briefly, Sora turned back to his friend, starting slowly, "Uh, Riku..."

"I know Sora," Riku replied sadly, "As long as Mickey can track me, it's not safe for us all to trave together, because sooner or later, we won't find him early enough to escape. With everything else, that's one more sword you don't need dangling over your head, so I'll take the fall instead."

"Riku, you don't need to do this," Kairi remarked, though even she wasn't sure she believed that.

Riku just shook his head. "Yeah, I do Kairi. When I left Castle Oblivion, I swore I would do whatever it took to keep you guys safe. That's the main reason I agreed to take you to Disney Castle; you would've stopped being a target, and Mickey was more likely to leave Sora alone. That, however, caused more problems than it solved, and I put all of you in danger further by causing Sora to lose sight of his light, at least temporarily. If keeping you guys safe means I have to travel solo again, then that's what needs to happen. Besides, he can't chase me forever."

"So what're you gonna do?"

Riku smiled slightly. "First, I've got quite a few questions, and I believe Yen Sid is the only one who has the answers I seek, so I'm gonna stick to the original plan and pay him a visit. Then, I'm gonna do what I can to help you from afar: finding information on how to defeat Hades, Maleficent, and the rest of them, as well as keeping Mickey off your back."

"How will we find you again?"

"You won't," Riku replied, shaking his head. "I'll find you. When the coast is clear, I'll get in contact with your friends on Radiant Garden; no doubt they'll be able to get a message to you sooner or later. Until then, I think it's best for all of us if we don't know where each other is."

Sora nodded once. "Alright Riku, we'll do it your way. Just, don't die on us. If you do, I swear I'll track you down wherever you wind up in the Underworld and drag you back to the surface by the hair, you got me?" The statement was softened by the Sora-ish grin on his face.

"Don't worry about me Sora," Riku replied with a roguish grin of his own, "Worry about yourself. You've gotta protect Kairi and Namine after all."

Laughing slightly as the girls grabbed his arms, glaring playfully over his shoulders at the other teen, Sora just answered, "I'm pretty sure if we don't get going, _you're_ the one who'll need protection, from _them_." Sobering quickly, Sora, having freed his arms, hefted Kairi's bag over his shoulder, before remarking, "Stay safe."

Watching Sora and the girls leave until they'd past the gate, Riku nodded once, gathering dark energy as he prepared a Corridor of Darkness to somewhere he'd visited recently; he had an appointment to keep.

o-o-o

"Are you sure about this Your Majesty?"

"Yes Donald, I am. The Princesses must be kept safe, Kairi more than others. Her being with Sora in his travels is hardly safe, even without his new dark-" Mickey's voice cut off sharply as Donald cleared his throat. "His _alleged_ new darkness." There was an obvious eye roll involved. "In any case, we need to find them, and then we can... parlay with Sora to reach an amicable solution."

It took a few more minutes before the speakers came into view, at which point Riku, leaning forward against the railing and gazing over the sea towards the setting sun, declared, "You're late. Given how long the train should have taken to get here, I expected you here ten minutes ago. I was almost starting to think that you'd decided it was a trap and weren't going to come at all."

"Riku?" Mickey asked, confused, as he glanced around the area to find the teen to be the only one there. "What're you... Where's Sora?"

Riku just shrugged, not even turning around. "Gone. Off world by now." 'I hope.' "When we learned you were in Twilight Town he and the girls bugged out. I'm the only one still here, and I only stayed because I needed to talk to you." 'And because I had a train to catch.' "Besides, once we learned you can track me, they weren't safe around me anymore."

"What?" The mouse king could only gape in shock. "How did they know we were here?"

Riku shrugged again, turning around to face them at last. "They were already in town, doing some shopping in the markets, and, let's face it, you guys don't exactly blend in here."

Frowning slightly, Mickey asked, "What did you want to talk about?"

"Stop chasing him," Riku stated firmly, "Between stopping Hades, Maleficent's efforts to convert him, Nobodies trying to kill him, and whatever that Seymour guy has planned, Sora has enough to worry about without you dogging his heels."

Mickey sighed, shaking his head slowly. "Even now you side against me."

"No, I'm not." Riku's reply stunned Mickey somewhat. "I've never sided against you. I've sided _with_ Sora." He let that sink in for a second. "You asked me to kill my best friend, who I have known ever since he was born. Did you really expect me to turn against him, after everything I've gone through since leaving Maleficent's service to protect him?" He got no answer. "If I had asked you to kill Donald or Goofy, would _you_ have agreed?"

The mouse king's response was instantaneous, "Of course not!" Shaking his head slightly at realising he'd lost the high ground, he tried a different tract, "Okay, so maybe I was wrong on that front, as Donald and Goofy have pointed out to me, but the fact remains that we need to keep Kairi safe, and that means-."

"If you take Kairi away from him, you're condemning Sora to a fate worse than death." Riku's solemn fact shattered his listeners' thought processes. "I watched it happen, when Maleficent kidnapped her. Kairi is the only thing holding back the darkness inside him, and keeping it from overwhelming his heart; Namine alone cannot stop it, she can only slow it down." Silence blanketed the hilltop for a moment, before Riku added, "Kairi told us how, in the Dark City, Sora almost completely lost himself to darkness trying to find her. He became so powerful that he could destroy Berserker and Sorcerer Nobodies with casual disinterest. And yet, when he found her, he was able to push back the darkness and become Sora again. There is no doubt, Kairi **IS** his Light, and while I hope it doesn't come to this, I would sooner cut you down where you stand than let you take his Light away from him."

Silence reined once more, Donald and Goofy sharing a glance behind Mickey's back as if to decide what they would do if it came to that, before Mickey finally sighed, replying, "Alright Riku, you win. While I cannot promise Kairi will not be needed at some point, I can promise you that until that need is great, I will not pursue her. And when that time comes, I shall not engage Sora provided he agrees to the terms of a ceasefire." Riku nodded, satisfied he'd managed to get as much as he did. "Will you be coming back to the castle?"

Riku smiled slightly; not at Mickey's question, so much at the whistle he could hear on the wind. "No, not yet at least. I still have some business to take care of, and some answers I need to find. I can't do either of those there." Putting one hand on the railing as the whistling drew closer, he added, "Please don't follow me," before vaulting over the barricade, and plummeting down the cliff side behind it.

Rushing forwards, the Disney trio saw Riku freefalling towards the train tracks below. However, mere seconds before he could hit, a familiar-looking purple train shot out of the tunnel, and Riku landed on the roof with a thunderous impact, though the barrel roll he dove into upon landing minimized any actual damage. Getting to his feet, the teen smirked and waved at them as he left, before climbing down the side and opening the carriage door, disappearing inside. As the train moved out of sight, Mickey felt something of a smile come to his face as he remarked, "Welp, _that_ felt unnecessary."

o-o-o

"Well, I guess this is the place." The train ride had taken a lot longer than he had expected, with the tracks seeming to pass through the sunset sky of Twilight Town and into the night sky behind it. Then, unless he'd missed his guess, the train had actually curved around to _behind_ the sun, before pulling up at this island, floating in the middle of nothingness, surrounded by clouds, and topped by what he'd learnt in his travels were pine trees. Finally, in the very centre of this island, was the unusual tower he stood before now.

"How the hell does that thing stay upright?" The answer of course, as one would expect of a magic tower, a Wizard did it. The golden-brown tower would have easily been as tall as Twilight Town's clock tower, were it not for one simple fact: after about the first story or two, upon which there was a side room hanging on the side, the tower actually bent to the side opposite the room, before twisting upright again as it reached further rooms higher up the tower. There were quite a few side chambers, each capped by a green shale roof with a star atop it, while the main tower itself had a blue roof with a crescent moon and stars motif, and was capped with a stars and moon weather vane; though it was highly unlikely that this little bubble world actually experienced weather.

Shrugging, Riku remarked, "Well, I really shouldn't be so surprised. I've seen weirder things." Striding towards the only entrance he could see, he raised one hand to knock, only for the doors to swing open before him. "Ooooh... Kay... I assume this means he's expecting me."

Inside the foyer of the tower, Riku found a single staircase, spiralling clockwise part-way up the wall, before ending at a gilded archway with swirling blue energy inside. Looking up, Riku saw no other way up save the stairs, especially considering not far above him was ceiling, obviously capping the initial vertical part of the tower. With a shrug and a sigh, Riku climbed the steps and walked through the archway, closing his eyes as he passed the threshold, and when he opened them again, he was in a sealed room.

At least, he thought it was sealed; there were no doors he could see in the small, square room. Instead, in the middle of each wall was a massive painting, with a gilded frame looking a lot like the archway he'd walked through in design. In the painting directly in front of him as he'd arrived was a huge picture of Sora, as he'd been when the Islands fell into darkness, with his Kingdom Key in hand resting upon his shoulder. In the painting to his right he found Roxas, the hood of his black cloak down, with a pair of Kingdom Keys. The one to his left featured a Sora look-alike, with golden eyes instead of blue, wearing clothes identical to the painting in front, only all shades of black; if he had to guess, he would say that was Aros. Turning towards the picture behind him, Riku paused when he realised he had no idea who it was.

The figure in the final painting looked a lot like Roxas, but was dressed completely differently; Riku noted that, while similar, he was even dressed differently to the Roxas he'd seen on the Altar of Naught, after the first group battle with Xemnas. The jacket he wore was white on the left, and black on the right; well, Riku's left, not the figure's. Beneath it, he wore a grey vest with white patches, and beneath _that_, a black vest. The pants he wore were mainly grey, with white and black highlights, and he wore a white-and-black check wristband. The most striking thing about the painting, though, were that he seemed to be wearing the left pauldron, belt, and boots from a suit of grey-green armour, though the shoes looked like street shoes that had then been armoured. In his right hand he held a Keyblade Riku had never seen before, sharp and angular, and designed to be held backwards, such that the teeth actually faced the wielder.

Not knowing what else to do, Riku moved closer to examine the picture. However, as he drew closer to the unknown figure, the picture changed, the Keyblade disappearing and his eyes closing, almost as though asleep, before it faded away completely. When he moved to examine the picture of Roxas, it changed to how he was when Riku had fought him: hood up, face hidden, wielding Oblivion and Oathkeeper, before it too faded. The picture of Aros transitioned into the Anti-Form Riku had seen pictures of, before, like the two before it, it likewise faded. The picture of Sora, however, did not change at all, until Riku laid his hand upon it, at which point the entire picture, excluding the frame, disappeared, to be replaced by a blue portal like the one he'd come in, and he was dragged through.

When he reached the other side, Riku found he was on a flight of stairs, suspended in the air above nothingness, with a red portal behind him at the base, and a blue portal ahead of him at the top of the stairs. Looking in every direction, he saw nothing but a vast emptiness, with a pale light that seemed to come from everywhere, so, seeing no other option, he climbed the steps and passed through the blue portal.

He found himself in an almost identical room to last time, except the paintings were all different. The one directly in front of him was himself as he was when the journey began, with a ghostly image of Ansem behind him, but that was the only figure he could identify. The one to his right was a brunette man, probably older than Riku was now by a few years, wearing a tight black muscle shirt with red straps crossed over it, and billowy pleated beige pants (which Riku initially mistook for a skirt) toped with a wide black belt, the sash part of which was tied, but the buttons untied. Like the unknown figure in the Sora room, he wore armour on one arm and his feet, though this figure's armour was gold and red, and extended down to his hand. He had his hand on the base of the guard of a Keyblade that reached from the ground up to his shoulders, the golden blade of which had teeth on both sides, though one side's were longer than the other.

The picture to his right featured a significantly older man, his black hair tied into a topknot, a short moustache, and a soul patch. He wore an open long white coat, over a navy blue white with white straps forming a cross shape along the neck and over the chest. His pants were similar to the other man's, though without the pleats, and were a lighter off-white colour. He wore gilded plate boots, and had a wide, armoured black belt. In his right hand he carried a simple looking Keyblade, the blade itself a black bar with a decorative 'E' for teeth, and a guard made up of copper rods with white boxes in the corners.

The figure in the final painting wore no armour, but it bore no comfort to Riku, as this figure was dressed almost exactly like Ansem was, the only major differences being the lack of a Heartless symbol, and the shirt being buttoned up. This figure was much older than Ansem though, bald, with a silver beard, and piercing yellow eyes. Despite looking like an old man, however, he held a Keyblade with almost casual ease, one almost as large as the golden one in the right painting, though looking much more vicious, with demonic wings for the guard, a horned lion head just above the handle, two jagged shafts for either side of the double-edged blade, and teeth resembling a battle-axe, split into three claw-like protrusions. It also had two demonic eyes, like the one on his own Way to the Dawn, one just above the handle, and the other on the head of the blade.

As he examined each painting in turn, unlike those in the Sora room, these did not change. However, as they faded, the ghost of Ansem in his own painting became more solid, until, after all paintings had faded bar his own, the picture was no longer of him at all, but instead contained Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. Placing his hands on the painting, like in the Sora room it became a portal, and he found himself on another staircase. This time, though, there was no portal at the top, but instead a gilded wooden door.

Steeling his nerves and ascending the staircase, Riku politely knocked on the door first, before swinging it open to find a cosy study within. And, seated behind the desk at the back of the room, was the blue robed, grey haired figure of what could only have been Master Yen Sid. Bowing formally like Mickey had taught him, as the door closed behind him, Riku intoned, "Greetings Master Yen Sid, I have come-"

"You have questions about the past, both your own and Sora's, and you hope the answers can change your present, and help ensure a future." Master Yen Sid replied in his powerful voice. "I know why you have come Riku, and you are correct, I have the answers you seek. Some, you have already received on your way up my tower, though with answers comes more questions. However, with all knowledge, there is a price that must be paid. Yours will be that the knowledge you seek will change your life in ways you cannot possibly imagine, and may even shake the foundations of your world. With this in mind, do you still wish to hear what I know?"

Riku took a deep breath, thinking deeply over his decision, before he nodded solemnly. "If my life must be destroyed for me to save Sora, Kairi, and Namine, then I will pay that price willingly."

Yen Sid nodded, raising one hand and gesturing to the massive tome before him, which opened on its own to the page of Yen Sid's choosing. "The answers you seek lie in a story. This arc of the story began almost twelve years ago now, but for it to be truly understood, one must know the origin of _all_ stories, the beginning of everything. In an age long forgotten, the worlds were not separate as they were now, but were instead united, all peoples living in a single world under the Light..."

* * *

Author's Notes

Well, that seemed as good a place to end this chapter as any. Obviously, the next chapter will continue Master Yen Sid's story, and in it, I will be explaining the world of Kingdom Hearts as I see it, with my own interpretation of the events during, and before, Birth By Sleep.


	19. Birth By Sleep

- Shades of Grey -

Chapter 18 - Birth By Sleep

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

* * *

_Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of Light. Everyone loved the Light. Then people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves. And Darkness was born in their hearts. The Darkness spread, swallowing the Light and many people's hearts. It covered everything, and the world disappeared. But small fragments of Light survived...in the hearts of children. With these fragments of Light, children rebuilt the lost world. It's the world we live in now. But the true Light sleeps, deep within the Darkness. That's why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other. But someday, a door to the innermost darkness will open. And the true light will return._

"That story was passed down, from generation to generation, for countless years. Over time, memory became legend, legend faded to myth, and even myth has been long forgotten on many worlds. There are only a handful of worlds that even remember the tale, and each generation, that number dwindles. In all my years of research, even I have been unable to prove if this myth was ever fact, but there _is_ evidence that the worlds were once not as separate as they are today; or should I say, not as separate as they were before Xehanort found the Door To Darkness, and brought down the Paling that kept the worlds separate."

Riku listened patiently, slouched comfortably in the leather high back chair Yen Sid had conjured for him. The story the old wizard had told him so far, he was sure he'd heard it before, but he couldn't place where he might have heard it.

The magical tome flicking to the next page, Yen Sid continued his tale. "Some time ago, I came upon the ruins of an ancient battle. The world was nothing but a lifeless husk, a wasteland, filled with the discarded weapons of all those slain in battle, set into the ground in such a way as to form a crossroads between them. It was many years more before we unearthed any information about that battle, but the world became known as the Keyblade Graveyard."

Riku almost choked on his own tongue. "Keyblade Graveyard? As in, more than one?"

Yen Sid nodded solemnly. "There were hundreds of Keyblades. Possibly thousands, we never catalogued all of them."

Riku paused, suddenly realising something. "We?" The wizard had mentioned a 'we' several times.

The old wizard nodded once, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Yes, 'we'. You know that, until events of the past ten years or so, that all the worlds were separate, yes? Thanks to the Paling, the worlds were so separate, that in almost every case, they didn't even know other worlds existed. You yourself may have encountered people like this, unaware of a world beyond their own." Riku nodded thoughtfully, having encountered many such people. "There was one world that was special. One world that had always known of the existence of other worlds, and how to safely travel between them, beyond the Paling. A world situated on the border of every world. A world known as The Land of Departure."

"I've never heard of that world," Riku remarked pointedly. "If they knew of the existence of other worlds, wouldn't someone from there have been encountered by now?"

Yen Sid just shook his head slowly, sadly. "You won't encounter anyone from that world. Not anymore. That world was destroyed roughly twelve years ago. And it is that story that will contain the answers you seek." Yen Sid stroked his beard again, before musing, "I suppose I am getting ahead of myself. First, I should tell you why this world was special. Located on the border of the Realms of Light and Darkness, the denizens of this world were dedicated to protecting the Light from those that might covet it, like those that had fractured the original paradise, and to training others to aid in that cause. And, to a one, every member of this order, of which I was once part, could wield a Keyblade."

At Riku's gasp, Yen Sid chortled, asking, "Is that such a surprise? Did you never wonder why, after all this time, young Mickey still calls me Master? I was once a Keyblade Master, and was part of the Keyblade Knights for over half a century, until I retired, many years ago, to continue my research. In fact, the only work I did for the Order between my retirement, and its destruction, was taking young Mickey as my apprentice, and training him. He never did get the chance to take the Master Qualification Exam, which is a tragedy."

"But wait," Riku interjected, confused, "If Mickey had a Keyblade all his own for all those years, why did he need Donald and Goofy to find Sora? And why was he always referred to as 'The Keyblade Master'?"

Yen Sid sighed. "In part, the second may be because he was the first public Keyblade wielder in some time, but in truth, both questions share a common answer: the Keyblade Sora wields is special. But I shall get into that more later."

"One last question, Master Yen Sid, before you continue," Riku spoke quickly, and made sure to use the honorific. "What happened to the Order?"

Yen Sid's face was grim as he replied. "Greed, and betrayal."

o-o-o

"Are you sure this is the right place Sora?"

"Yeah, this seems more like an arena than a place Gods would hang out."

"Well, that depends on the Gods." Sora grinned at his ladies. "But yeah, this isn't Mount Olympus; I've never actually been there. What it _is_, however, is the Olympus Coliseum, and there's people here who _do_ know where Mount Olympus is." Wrapping an arm around each girls' shoulders as he walked them to the massive entrance to the stadium itself, he continued, "This world gets a lot of off-world visitors thanks to the games; it's actually one of the few worlds I've encountered that actually know other worlds exist. And, let's face it, if you were a God you wouldn't want Joe Anybody waltzing through your domain, so I assume this place was built as a 'foyer' of sorts."

"I guess that makes sense," Namine agreed, "Give everyone a clean, contained world to deal with, while they sit in a pocket dimension just outside it, like how Yen Sid's tower is just outside Twilight Town."

"All right then," Kairi begrudgingly accepted, "So who're we looking for?"

"Megara or Philoctetes," Sora replied, "And if neither one of those knows where Mount Olympus is, they should know where Hercules is, and he, I'm pretty sure, will know. His dad's Zeus."

The walk through the courtyard was short, though it did take a bit longer than normal because the girls wanted to examine the huge statues; well, that, and Sora wanted to show off that his name was on the top of the leaderboards for a couple of the tournaments, though he was a little annoyed to see that, in some of them, Hercules had managed to bump him down to the number two spot. Pushing the massive stone doors open, Sora was greeting by a very familiar sight: the entryway to the coliseum floor was roped off, and the short, rotund red satyr Philoctetes, or 'Phil' as most people called him, was standing next to it, straining to reach to the top of some notice he was trying to apply.

"Hey champ, back already?" Phil called out, not stopping to turn around and face the newcomers. "Can you gimme a quick hand with this?"

Sora grinned slightly. Now, he could have gone over and lifted the satyr up, or, he could have just secured the top for him. Instead, he decided to get a little creative with the Magnet and Gravity spells to lift the little guy into the air unsupported. For a few seconds, he flailed and kicked in the air, and it was by luck more than design that in his random movements he managed to secure the notice with a spike placed more or less in the centre of the top, before Sora lowered him to the ground again.

Whirling about in anger, Phil barked, "Okay, what's the big id-" He trailed off sharply at seeing Sora's grinning back. "Sora? Well, if it isn't the hero himself. What brings you out here? If you're lookin' to get your title back, you're a bit early for the games." Noticing the girls, he added, "Who're they? New junior heroes? Whatever happened to the other two you had with you, you lot were almost inseparable, 'cept for those few solo matches o' yours."

"Sorry Phil, as much as I'd love you to put the girls through some junior hero training-" Even Sora himself wasn't sure how serious he was with that remark. "-I'm afraid we don't really have the time. I actually need to talk to Hercules, you know where I can find him?"

Phil shrugged slightly, but gut shaking as he did. "He went to visit his dad; should be back soon. Whaddya need him for?"

"I need to go to Mount Olympus."

"Whoa, back up a step there kiddo," Phil cried out. "I got two words for ya: Not. A. Chance." Kairi opened her mouth, most likely to correct him, but Sora quickly placed a hand on her arm, shaking his head slightly. "In all of history, no mortal has ever set foot on Mount Olympus. By all rights, you shouldn't even know of it if not for Herc bein' your friend an' all. Herc himself is only allowed in 'coz Zeus is his dad, and even _he_ had to jump through all kinda hoops to get in. You wanna talk to the Gods, you can do it the ol' fashioned way: pray."

Sora shook his head. "I have to see them directly. I need their help to stop Hades."

"Oh yeah? What's the ol' codfish up to this time?" Phil drawled. "Herc sent Meg down there to check things out, 'coz it's been too quiet lately, but she ain't back yet. What new scheme you reckon he's been workin' on now?"

Staring Phil down, Sora replied blandly, "What would you say if I told you he's chosen to upgrade his station from 'God of the Underworld' to 'God of Death'? What would you say if I told you he's decided that waiting for people to die or fall into darkness naturally is taking entirely too long, and is travelling from world to world, killing people and making them into Heartless, before destroying the world itself? What would you say if I told you he was working with the evil witch Maleficent again, and her cadre of villains, who seek to snuff out all Light? What would you say if I told you that I'm the only one who has the power to stop him, but I need your Gods to tell me how? What would you say then?"

Swallowing nervously, Phil replied shakily, "I'd say... I think history is about to be broken..."

o-o-o

"When a Keyblade Apprentice passed the Master Qualification Exam, they were given two choices. The first choice they had was to return to their own world, becoming it's champion, and reshaping their world to one more of their liking, for very few worlds contained more than one active Keyblade Master at any one time. Those who chose that option chose to bind themselves to their world's heart, giving up their chance to journey to, instead, take up responsibility for maintaining their world, and taking on an apprentice to take their place. It is likely that many of this style of Keyblade Master still exist, having sealed their world away from the conflicts of the past twelve years, though with the prolificness of the Heartless and Nobodies, who can truly say?"

"Master Eraqus was the first among equals in that regard, as not only was he the champion of his world, he was the champion of the world _between_ worlds, the Land of Departure. It was he who oversaw the Master Qualification Exam, and it was he who was one of the few masters to ever take on more than a single apprentice at any time. Master Eraqus believed that all people who had the ability to wield the Keyblade should be taught how, and, more importantly, taught to fight for the good of the Light. I myself also chose this path, though instead of returning to my own world, I constructed this one, a demi-plane connected to another world, as, at the time, my own world already had its champion. Many Masters who wished to retire chose this path, often binding their domain to their home world, as a world's heart can almost always serve only one master at a time. With many worlds falling into darkness, however, it is likely these symbiotic worlds too have fallen."

"The second choice for a newly awarded Keyblade Master is to journey, to become the Guardian of all worlds, not just the one they call home. Of all choices made, this was the most common for all but the most patriotic or homesick, for embarking on one's own journey opens up many different paths. Some found a new world to call home, a world undefended, and chose to settle there. Others found potential apprentices, returning them to those who could train them if they themselves could not. Some, however, went in search of personal glory, and it was these who were the most dangerous. It was one such as this who eventually brought down the Order. A Keyblade Master named Xehanort."

"XEHANORT?" Riku exclaimed in shock, knocking his chair back as he shot to his feet. "The Xehanort who brought darkness to Destiny Islands? The Xehanort who created the Emblem Heartless? The Xehanort who is, by all rights, the source of all of the Realm of Light's current problems? **That** Xehanort?"

Shaking his head slowly, Master Yen Sid replied "Yes, and no." Waving his hand quickly, and using his magic to right Riku's chair, he continued, "The answer is, all at once, simple and complicated, but for now, I will give you the simple answer: No, the Xehanort who went on to become Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, was not Master Xehanort. He was not a Keyblade Master. But, he could have been, had circumstances been different. And this is where the complicated answer comes in."

Waiting until Riku collected himself and sat down again, Master Yen Sid sighed somewhat sadly, remarking, "You have a lot more in common with Master Xehanort than you may be comfortable with." He summoned up a small three dimensional image of the person in question with a puff of smoke, and Riku realised that this was the old man from one of the paintings in the 'Riku Room'. "The three most prominent, however, are that you both managed to escape your own worlds all on your own, that you both wielded the power of Darkness as a weapon, and that you both hail from Destiny Islands."

Riku blinked at that last one. "He was from my home world?"

Yen Sid nodded. "Yes, though that was likely from before even your parents were born. Xehanort was never particularly forthcoming with information about his past, and, to this day, I am unsure if 'Xehanort' was ever truly his name, or just a moniker he adopted, but one fact I do know is that, many a year ago, he was born and raised on Destiny Islands. He is also the true cause of all of the problems of the last dozen years."

o-o-o

The Destiny Islanders couldn't help but gape at the high columned, multi-tiered structure atop the stairs before them, less a building and more a city; a fact that was even more amazing considering the entire thing rested atop a mountain so high it passed through the clouds, with sides so steep the only safe way up was to fly. The first piece of flat ground all the way up the mountain was where they were now, at the base of a tall staircase, at the top of which rested huge gold gates, which, if they weren't mistaken, were glowing slightly. Pegasus whinnied behind them, before sitting down like a dog to await for Hercules to be finished here; Phil had to call the winged horse back prematurely to get them there. Shaking his head slightly as he lead the girls up the stairs, Sora mused to himself, 'I don't know much about horses, but something tells me that Pegasus is unique in how it acts...'

As they neared the top of the stairs, the huge gates swung open inward of their own accord; or so Sora thought. Waiting for them just inside the gates was a small reddish cherub, slightly smaller, Sora observed, than Winnie the Pooh, though it was hard to say for certain considering the cherub was flying so he was at head height. "Masters Sora and Namine? Princess Kairi?" When the three nodded, the cherub spun around and stated, "This way please," before flying off, leaving the three off-worlders to follow behind.

They were lead through the massive structure, and were surprised to notice that, besides other cherubim like the one leading them, there was no one else around. As if reading their minds, their guide spoke up. "The Gods assembled to meet Hercules earlier, and are still in the audience chamber with him."

Feeling a question well up inside her, Namine asked, "Hey, how come you addressed me as 'Master' earlier? I'm female."

The cherub spun around again, floating backwards as he continued guiding them, as he said, "Apologies. I meant it in the sense of 'Keyblade Master', which is gender-neutral." Having said its peace, the cherub turned around again and resumed forward motion, having never once had to slow down. They continued the journey in silence, as the cherub lead them to the building at the top of the complex. As they drew closer, Sora could pick up Hercules' voice amidst a mass of different voices coming from inside; he was too far away to hear what they were saying, but it sounded jovial. It also sounded like it was winding down.

Stopping outside the entrance, their guide waved them in before floating back down the complex again, so, steeling himself, Sora strode inside, Kairi and Namine following behind him. In the centre of the room, and thus the most noticeable, was Hercules himself. Around him, seated in nine seats in a rough semi-circle, were nine very different beings, all with a single thing in common: they glowed. Directly in front of Hercules, and in the centre of the nine, was a tall, broad shouldered man with flowing white hair, a crisp beard, and a purple toga; he glowed orange, like Hercules himself did, so Sora guessed that was Zeus. To Zeus' right was a pink-skinned, orange-hired woman, in a deep pink dress; to his left, a blue-skinned god in a deeper blue toga, carrying a trident, with a beard ending in a split like a dolphin's tail, and a dorsal fin running down the back of his head instead of hair. If Sora remembered Hercules' descriptions, those were Hear and Poseidon.

To the right of Hear were, around the chairs: a purple-skinned woman in blue armour, with a short blue owl sitting on her shoulder; a light-pink-skinned goddess, with yellow hair, in a royal pink toga-dress with a heart-shaped clasp; and a short blue god in a white toga, with purple sunglasses, winged blue sandals, and a winged golden helmet. Athena, Aphrodite, and Hermes. To Poseidon's left were: a maroon god with a red beard, wearing a black smithing apron; a red god wearing legionary armour, carrying a sword; and a purple god with a golden Mohawk, wearing a royal red tunic with a cape, tied around his neck with a sun clasp. Hephaestus, Ares, and Apollo.

Sora cleared his throat, trying to work out what to say in introduction, but before he could say a word Hercules turned to face him, a smile appearing as he cried out, "Sora! You're back!" The demigod rushed over to shake his hand, but paused as he reached him, adding haltingly, "Uh, wait... You're _here_. How did... Why are..."

"It's okay son," Zeus remarked, in a surprisingly serious tone considering the huge grin on the god's face, "They were expected."

Beside him, Hear nodded, "We know who you are. Sora, Kairi, Namine. And we know why you have come."

From the other side, Poseidon stamped the butt of his trident against the stone floor. "Brother Hades has overstepped his bounds once more."

Apollo clenched one hand, adding through grit teeth, "He spreads his darkness far throughout the worlds father designed!"

Kairi blinked, previous thoughts disappearing like mist under sunlight as the new information processed. "Wait, what was that?" She asked, glancing from Apollo to Zeus. "Worlds that **you** designed?"

Zeus just nodded gravely.

o-o-o

"Master Xehanort considered himself a student of history. He travelled to many different worlds, obtaining a vast well of knowledge concerning Keyblade lore, and the powers of Light and Darkness; even I, with all my knowledge, am still just piecing together conclusions Xehanort reached years ago." Yen Sid sighed, running a hand along his beard. "There were three things that Master Xehanort discovered that changed the way we viewed history; more importantly, those three things also changed how he saw the future. Much of the information he discovered, we did not find out until too late, but amongst the many worlds he visited, he collected information concerning the Heartless, the Keyblade War, and Kingdom Hearts."

"Something you may not be aware of Riku, but prior to twelve years ago, the Heartless were a rare sight in the Realm of Light," Yen Sin continued. "We knew of their existence through a handful of encounters per year. The Heartless are, or rather were, the denizens of the Realm of Darkness, as we are the denizens of the Realm of Light. When slain here, even by Keyblade, they simply returned to their own dimension. It wasn't until the experiments on Radiant Garden years later that the Heartless truly spread throughout the worlds."

"So the hearts of the Pureblood Heartless aren't released when they're slain?" Riku asked, curious; was everything he knew about Heartless wrong?

Yen Sid shook his head. "No, they are. However, the hearts are released back to whatever Realm they originate from, and, back then, all Pureblood Heartless originated from the Realm of Darkness, and it is there they returned. Now, however, while the Emblem Heartless are made up entirely of either artificial hearts, or hearts from the Realm of Light, the so-called Pureblood Heartless are no longer so pure, including hearts from this Realm amongst their number."

"It was this information about the denizens of Darkness that shaped Master Xehanort's views. While his old friend Master Eraqus, and in truth most of the worlds, believed that the Light was absolute, that is Is and Always Was, Master Xehanort came to believe that the Light could not exist without the Darkness. He believed that the balance between Light and Darkness is what sustained the worlds, and that, the balance was tipped in favour of the Light. So, as we discovered much too late, he set himself a goal, to destroy the current system, and remake it in his own image. And it was the other two keystones he learned that would show him how."

"You remember the Keyblade Graveyard I mentioned earlier?" He waited for Riku to nod. "Master Xehanort discovered that this was the final battleground of what we knew as the Keyblade War, from an age long past. Keyblade Wielders from both the Realm of Light and the Realm of Darkness, engaged in a great battle from which there were no known survivors. This was all we knew about it, but Master Xehanort, he discovered more. He discovered what the war was **about**."

"What did he discover?" Riku honestly wanted to know; after all, if he and Xehanort were alike, and this knowledge is what shaped Xehanort into what he was, Riku wanted to know it, if only to know what _not_ to do so as to not become like the man.

"The war was over the same thing as the conflict twelve years ago that destroyed the Keyblade Knights. The same thing as every conflict between worlds since. Possession of Kingdom Hearts. And the means by which to control it."

o-o-o

"We were there when the great World of Light was sundered by greed. We were there when the survivors, those with Light in their hearts, sought to rebuild. It was us, along with many others, who helped restore order, and to build substance from the fragments left, to construct the worlds as they were, and are." Zeus explained. "But what then? We knew of the power of the darkness in men's hearts, the self-same darkness that had sundered the World that Was; if men knew, and could influence, those who shaped the worlds, they, too, would be destroyed. So we sealed ourselves away, lest our powers be used against the Light."

"You call us Gods," Poseidon continued, "But then, we were but men. Men who grasped the strands of power, and helped build order from chaos. There are many 'Gods', in many worlds, all with a single goal: to maintain the balance of Light and Darkness, and to safeguard the worlds. But how could we do that, if we ourselves were sealed away?"

"We knew, from those survivors, that there were those who would fight for the Light," Hephaestus stated. "So we forged weapons with which they might fight back the Darkness. And what better weapon was there, than the hearts that has sustained them?"

Eyes widening in realisation, Sora remarked, "You made the Keyblades?"

Hephaestus nodded. "Yes, we did. I, and many others, working together. You may not know this, but each and every heart that exists has a Keyblade that represents it. Whether a person can wield a Keyblade, however, well... That's dependant entirely on how strong the heart is."

"The Keyblade itself is neither a weapon of Light, not Darkness," Apollo explained. "It doesn't matter which Realm it or it's wielder come from. A Keyblade and it's wielder from the Realm of Light is as free to fight for the Darkness as they are the Light, and same from those in the Realm of Light. The weapon is just that; a weapon. What truly matters is the hand that holds it. The Keyblade is simply a manifestation of the power of it's wielder's heart. At least, that is the way my father, and the other Gods, designed them. But they, like the human's whose hearts birthed them, can, and did, change."

"We designed the weapons to mirror the human heart as close as possible," Zeus continued. "Such that, when the heart grows stronger, the weapon, too, becomes stronger. This we foresaw. What we _didn't_ foresee, however, was the human ability to draw strength from another. It is this strength that is represented by the Keychains. The token itself is just that; a token. On it's own, it has no power. However, when used in conjunction with the Keyblade, it allows the wielder to draw on the bond they share with the heart that token represents."

"The Oathkeeper charm you use, for instance," Aphrodite spoke up, her voice sounding as smooth as silk. "When any of the three of you attach it to your Keyblades, especially Sora or Kairi, it allows the one using it to draw on the strength of the other, the strength of the bond of friendship and love, the oath you swore to always be together, no matter how far apart you may be. Were another to use this charm, one for whom no oath applied, it would do nothing."

"Would it surprise you to learn, young Kairi, that you were not the first to wield your Keyblade?" Hear asked. When Kairi nodded, slightly bewildered, Hear held out a hand, summoning up a small image of a blue-haired girl, looking surprisingly much like an older Kairi, wearing a black sleeveless bodysuit with pink straps crossed over the front, a blue half-skirt covering the back of her legs topped by a white sash belt, white billowy sleeves stopping shy of her shoulder, thigh-high black socks, and silver plate boots. "Do you recognize this girl?"

"Uh... I _think_ so..." Kairi replied slowly. "I think I met her when I was little, back on Radiant Garden, but I don't really remember those years well."

Hara nodded, dispelling the image and closing her hand again. "You did indeed meet her on Radiant Garden, when you were four. Aqua saved you from an attack, and during the confusion, you came into contact with her Keyblade. It was this contact, an accidental version of what is known as the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony, that awakened the ability to use the Keyblade in you. It also allowed Aqua to wield your Keyblade, when she chose to use the charm, though the version of it she used was slightly different. She called it Destiny Place. She also placed a protecting spell on your necklace, and it was this spell that brought you to Destiny Island when you were cast into the Space Between Worlds by Xehanort."

"What's the 'Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony'?" Namine asked, "I don't think I've ever heard of it before."

"Only one who wields the Keyblade can awaken this ability in another," Poseidon supplied. "The ceremony is simple, enough so to be done accidentally. All that needs be done is the would-be apprentice must touch the Keyblade. If the Keyblade emits a brief glow, then the apprentice has gained the ability to use the Keyblade; they must just be taught how."

"Occasionally, though, there are what you could call 'wilders'," Ares remarked offhandedly, "People who learn how to use the Keyblade all on their own, without ever having undergone the ceremony."

"Is that what I am?" Sora asked. "I mean, I remember this weird dream with stained glass platforms which I've worked out was inside my heart, but I'd never seen a Keyblade prior to my own."

"No Sora," Zeus remarked, "What you are is special."

o-o-o

"All Hearts have a Key; this we have always known." Master Yen Sid explained, stroking his thick grey beard. "What Master Xehanort discovered is that Kingdom Hearts is no different. However, while hearts, and their keys, may be aligned to either the Light or the Darkness, Kingdom Hearts is all things, and so too is its Key. In the reports Master Xehanort wrote, discovered long after his treachery came to light, he states how this Key could only be created when a heart of pure Light and a heart of pure Darkness intersected, both of their powers being equal. He believed that it was lust for the power that would come from forming this Key, the 'X-Blade', it what sparked the Keyblade War." [1]

There was something about that explanation that bothered Riku, but he couldn't think of what it was offhand. "So he obviously had a plan for how to do that."

"Indeed." Yen Sid nodded. "Though by the time he had amassed the knowledge he needed for his plan, he had become an old man, and unlikely to see his plan realised. So, he sought a new vessel in which to extend his life."

"Wait, what?" Riku interjected, confused. "How is that possible?"

"By transferring his heart, arguably the very essence of his being, into another's body, making it his own. Much the same as Ansem did to you." Seeing Riku wasn't about to interrupt again, he continued, "Master Xehanort had an apprentice, a young boy by the name of Ventus. The boy, however, was too weak and gentle to be his Master's vessel, so instead, he was used to enact Xehanort's ultimate plan. When the boy was still young, younger than you were when your world fell into Darkness, Master Xehanort began his plan by shattering the boy's heart into two, to create a heart of pure Light, which he left in Ventus' body, and a heart of pure Darkness, which formed itself a new body out of that very Darkness, becoming Vanitas."

"However, the process had left the boy weakened, comatose and dying, his shattered heart too weak to sustain his life, so Xehanort, in a rare act of kindness, took the boy to his home, to die in peace amongst the sand and the waves. However, something happened Xehanort did not, could not, expect: Ventus survived. But the boy was still too weak for his plans, as, to form the X-Blade, both Ventus and Vanitas needed to be equal in power. Xehanort, however, could not train the boy himself, as not only did he need to prepare Vanitas, Ventus heart would not have stated pure if Xehanort himself trained him. So the boy was taken to the Land of Departure, to Xehanort's old friend Eraqus, to be trained. And it was here that Xehanort found his vessel."

"It was in another of Master Eraqus' apprentices, a young man named Terra, that Master Xehanort saw potential, but in order for him to truly take the young man as his vessel, Terra would need to accept the darkness in his heart. To this end, Xehanort sabotaged the Master Qualification Exam, causing Terra to fail while his friend and fellow apprentice, Aqua, did not. Through machinations with one of the palace guards in Radiant Garden, a man named Braig, Xehanort managed to befriend Terra, blaming all of the recent chaos on Vanitas and his brood, the Unversed; beings spawned from darkness and negative emotions, much like Vanitas himself. Taking Terra under his wing, Xehanort convinced the young man that the only way he would become a Keyblade Master was to accept the darkness in his heart, rather than fight it."

"After many battles and many confrontations, Xehanort informed Ventus about the truth of his past, and the creation of Vanitas, informing the boy that Eraqus had known all along. When the boy went to confront Master Eraqus about it, Xehanort told Terra that Eraqus had gone mad and was about to destroy Ventus, whom Terra saw as a little brother. Tricked and Enraged, Terra fought and defeated Eraqus, allowing Master Xehanort to callously deliver the final blow to his former friend, before shrouding the Land of Departure in darkness, leaving naught but ruins. Soon after, Terra, Aqua, and Ventus discovered the truth about Master Xehanort, leading to one final confrontation with the Master and his apprentice, in the Keyblade Graveyard."

"The battle, I am told, was intense, but ultimately, Master Xehanort and Vanitas proved triumphant. As Terra battled Xehanort, Aqua and Ventus fought Vanitas. When Vanitas went to his Master's aid, Ventus sought to turn the tide against him, but was frozen solid. On her own against Vanitas, Aqua was quickly disabled, allowing Vanitas to merge with Ventus. Enraged at the sight of his friends defeated, Terra succumb to the darkness in his heart, giving Xehanort the opening he needed to unlock his own heart, and send it into Terra's body. However, Xehanort's victory was not complete. A fragment of Terra's will remained separate, possessing his armour and Keyblade, and this Lingering Sentiment battled, and defeated, Xehanort, who was not yet used to his new body, casting the possessed man into the Space Between Worlds."

"Meanwhile, as Ventus fought Vanitas inside his heart, young Mickey arrived to aid Aqua, and together, the two managed to battle the possessed Ventus until such time as the young man defeated his dark side. Weakened in the battle, Ventus heart slipping free of his body. It was like this that Aqua brought Ventus' body to my tower, where I told her I could do nothing for him, and she left again; where she took Ventus, I am not aware. I do know, however, that after she left Ventus somewhere she deemed safe, she went in search of Terra, and she found him in Radiant Garden."

"That world seems to be a magnet for trouble," Riku mused, mostly to himself.

"Indeed," Yen Sid nodded. "It was there that Aqua confronted Terra, trying to make him remember his true self, but Terra's heart could not overpower Xehanort's, so she was left with no choice but to battle her friend. Terra awakened the darkness in his heart, which formed the Heartless known as the Guardian, but ultimately, Aqua proved victorious. Terra, desperate to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, tried to release the darkness in his head by sending himself to the Realm of Darkness, but Aqua jumped in after him, using her armour as protection. What happened in that dark realm is unknown, save that all that returned from is was Aqua's Keyblade and armour, and Terra, his memories and Keyblade locked away deep in his heart where he could not access them, remembering only a single name, one he took as his own: Xehanort. And it is that same Xehanort who became Ansem the Wise's apprentice, and undertook the research that brings us to where we are today."

Riku was silent for a moment, letting the information digest, before he asked a question that had been bothering him for a while. "Those people in the portraits, in the rooms leading up to this one, they're from that story aren't they?" Master Yen Sid nodded, smiling slightly in a way that suggested Riku continue. "Those in the room with my picture, the one directly behind is obviously Master Xehanort, and one of the other two is then obviously Terra, the younger one, but who was the third?"

"The third person you saw portrayed was Master Eraqus," Yen Sid replied simply. "When Xehanort slew him, Eraqus gave his heart to Terra, in the hope he could balance Terra's darkness, and it was Eraqus' heart that prevented Terra's from being completely subsumed by Xehanort. It is those three hearts, combined however they are after ten long years, that make up Ansem, Seeker of Darkness."

Riku nodded, putting that information at the back of his head while he finished his current line of questions. "And those in Sora's room? One I know is Roxas, Sora's Nobody, and based on what he told me on what happened to him, I can assume the one opposite it was his Heartless, but who was the third?"

Yen Sid simply smiled sadly, replying, "You already know the answer, don't you Riku?"

Riku nodded just as sadly, speaking a single word. "Ventus."

o-o-o

"From the moment you were born Sora, you were different from most people," Athena stated softly, one hand gently stroking the blue owl now perched atop the index finger of her other hand, "In all the worlds, your heart is unique, in a way we have not seen for countless generations." She smiled gently, adding, "One could say you were always destined for greatness, always destined to stand in the Great Halls of Heroes Past."

"You see Sora, when we forged the worlds, mankind was alone, clinging to fragments of Light in a sea of Darkness." Hephaestus explained, "When we forged the Keyblades, man was an island, independent, and so too were their Keys."

"Over time, those who survived the carnage began to rebuild," Hear continued, "They formed bonds between one another again. But of those warriors who wielded the Keys, very few sought out those bonds, believing all the strength they needed, they already possessed."

"When the wielders of the Light and of the Dark did war, the Keys they fought with contained no chain," Apollo remarked, "Out of the ashes of that conflict, however, arose Keybearers who sought those connections, to remind them that, for all their power, they were still human. And with those bonds, came a new, unified structure under which the worlds flourished."

"Uh, I don't mean to interrupt, but how does this relate to me?" Sora asked. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I love hearing about the history of the Keyblade, but..."

"How it relates to you is quite simple Sora," Hear replied with an absent sort of hand gesture. "Where other people seek out these connections and bonds to their fellow man, your heart, Sora, is connected to every other heart that is, or ever was."

There were a few moments of stunned silence, before Kairi coughed politely, asking, "So, uh, when you say 'connected'..."

Aphrodite smiled gently, replying to the unspoken question, "Each connection is as different as the hearts connected. Some connections are intimate, like yours and Namine's-" Hercules coughed from nearby, eyes wide as he interpreted that statement. "-Others are familial. Many are friendly, but some are antagonistic. Having a connection to all people does not mean that all people like you, just that, on some level, you can connect with anyone. If they open their hearts enough to let you."

Peering over the top of his purple glasses, Hermes asked, "Haven't you ever wondered why you make so many friends wherever you go? Why people who would normally shun the contact of others, like your pirate friend Captain Jack Sparrow, or the ape-raised savage Tarzan, or the lone wolf Cloud, or even the old and bitter Auron, don't shun you?"

"Have you never wondered," Ares continued, "Why when you encounter these people you have never met before in your life, you can automatically fight along side them? Even well trained soldiers need time to learn how to fight when teamed with another, and yet you, a boy barely of age sixteen, with almost no formal training, can not only work in tandem with many peoples from many worlds, but can even combine your strengths. Your 'Limit' techniques; did you truly never question how such a thing was possible?"

"All the worlds you've helped, have you not received a token from each one, if not from a denizen, from the world itself?" Athena added, "A new charm to lend you more strength, to grant your Key a new form; the Keyblade of that person, or that world's heart."

"When the chains of your memories were unlinked," Hear stated, "and you forgot the people you'd met-" Namine looks a little abashed at this statement. "-Did you never wonder why those people then forgot you too? Or why, when your memory of them was restored, why too was their of you?"

"The post-war generation of Keyblade Wielders learnt that bonds are power. That concept, Sora, is given life through you." Zeus summarised. "You said yourself, not too long ago, 'I don't need a weapon. My friends are my power'. At the time, you may not have realised just how right you were. Your Drive forms as a perfect example of this. As the bond between you, Donald, and Goofy strengthened, you began to draw on their power, until it reached the point you could assimilate their whole being temporarily, gaining new strengths. Now, with those bonds stronger still, you no longer even need them to be physically there for you to draw on their strength."

"You are the sum total of everything the Keyblade represents," Hephaestus remarked, almost casually for such a heavy statement.

"What matters most," Poseidon declared, "Is what you do with that strength."

"But you've got a good heart," Apollo spoke, in what was meant to be a fake whisper, "So we believe you'll do the right thing."

o-o-o

"Master Yen Sid," Riku asked respectfully, "You told me earlier that Sora's Keyblade was special. What did you mean?"

Yen Sid smiled slightly. "I did say that, but before I give you the answer you seek, I would like you to answer a question of mine: why do you want to know, truly?"

Riku was silent for a moment, a contemplative look on his face as his mind tried to sum up his feelings on the subject, before he finally replied pensively, "I guess, the real reason I want to know is because... Because it could have been mine, if I'd been stronger." Yen Sid began laughing, a deep, rich chortle of amusement, causing Riku to bark defensively, "Hey, I remember Sora telling me about this test he passed in his heart. Well, I had that same test, but I failed."

"The Awakening," Yen Sid supplied, laughter stifled, as he added, his voice slightly distant, "All things are born by sleep." Before Riku could question him on what that meant, the old master went on, "Riku, each Keyblade is unique. The Keyblade you now wield, this is the Key whose test you failed. And why? Because you could not fight back your darkness. Your Keyblade, like your heart, is of the Realm of Light, but when, in your test, Darkness triumphed, your Keyblade realised you were not ready. Can you tell me when your Keyblade came to you?"

Sighing slightly, Riku replied, "It was some time after I fought Sora, in the Land of Dragons." Seeing Yen Sid looking at him expectantly, he continued, "When I was thinking back on the fight, I realised that Sora hadn't fought to defeat me. He was more focused on destroying the legion of Rapid Thrusters than he was me, but even then, he couldn't have not realised who I was; after all, I was using Soul Eater, the very same weapon I had used the year earlier. I believed it was more like he was trying to test me, and whatever test it was, I believed I passed. It gave me hope that, once the adventure was over, I could cast away the darkness I had steeped myself in and return home. The next minute, Soul Eater transformed into Way to the Dawn."

"And given what I have just told you, why do you believe it came to you then?"

Riku's eyes widened slightly as the implications sank in. "Because... Because I had accepted my place in the Light." Yen Sid nodded slowly, a small smile on his face. "I had accepted that I wasn't doomed to the Darkness I had chosen, that I could, and did, choose to return to the Light."

"And that is why your Keyblade is 'Way to the Dawn'," Yen Sid explained. "As a Keyblade Master's heart grows in strength, so too does his Keyblade. Your heart is still stained with the Darkness that haunts you, and so too, your Keyblade."

"So if I were to cast off my Darkness, my Keyblade would change?" Yen Sid nodded. "And if I were to give up hope, and plunge myself deeper into Darkness, it would also change? Or I may lose the ability to summon it entirely?" Yen Sid nodded again, to both statements. "So, wait. If Way to the Dawn is, and always has been my Keyblade, how was I able to steal Sora's at Hollow Bastion?"

"There are three ways one Keyblade Master may wield another's blade. The first, and most common, is for one Master to replace his keychain with the keychain of another. The second, in that the original wielder has died, leaving their Keyblade ownerless. And the third way, is that the Keyblade, if not the wielder themselves, _lets_ them." Yen Sid explained. "While a Keyblade may not be truly sentient, they can 'feel', for a certain definition of the word."

"So Sora, or his Keyblade, _let_ me 'steal' it?" Riku asked, confused. "Given how devastated Sora was, it obviously wasn't him, so why would his Keyblade want me to steal it?"

Yen Sid smiled again, replying cryptically, "Have you ever considered that it may have been to test his resolve?" When Riku just continued to stare blankly at him, he clarified, "What happened to allow you to steal Sora's Keyblade?"

"It was when I met Sora at the Rising Falls," Riku replied, "I'd just told him, more or less, that everything he'd done to that point had just been to bring the Keyblade to me, and it came to me, just like I'd said it would."

"What happened to return his Keyblade to him?"

Understanding shining in Riku's eyes, he replied confidently, "When he told me that his journey hadn't been a waste. When he reaffirmed the friendships he'd made. When he started to believe in himself again." Shaking his head in disbelief, he added, "It wasn't the Keyblade at all that chose. **Sora** let me take the Keyblade, because part of his heart believed me when I said it was rightfully mine, didn't he?"

"You asked how Sora's Keyblade was special," Yen Sid remarked softly, implicitly answering Riku's trailing question with the slightest of nods, "The Kingdom Key is special because it draws power from all things, not simply the heart of the wielder. Sora's Keyblade could also be considered 'The Keyblade of Worlds' Hearts', but even this name does not truly express the depth of its potential, as it also draws strength from the people in those worlds. The Kingdom Key is special because it names Sora the Chosen Champion of the Realm of Light. And young Mickey sought that Keyblade for the same reason as he sought the one he now wields."

Riku wisely kept his mouth shut. This, above all knowledge, was why he had come to Yen Sid; he desperately wished to know King Mickey's motives, in the hopes that his faith had not been misplaced.

"Mickey sought the two Keyblades because The Door to Darkness, the door opened by the combined hearts of the seven Princesses of Heart, can only be closed through the combined efforts of the Chosen Champion of Light, standing in the Realm of Light that chose him, and the Chosen Champion of Darkness, standing amidst the Darkness."

o-o-o

"There was one last question I had for you, before I continue my journey and let you get back to... whatever it is Gods and Goddesses get up to." Seeing that he had the collective of deities' attention, he asked, "How do I defeat Hades? How do I stop him?" Smiles came to the faces of the assembles gods and goddesses. "What? Did I say something funny?"

"No Sora," Zeus replied, "We are merely pleased that we were correct in the restraint we believed you could show." Comprehension failed to dawn on Sora's face. "Had you asked us how to _kill_ Hades, we would have been forced to refuse you any further help or information."

Kairi and Namine both shared a look, the same thought in both their minds that it would be very un-Sora to want _anyone_ dead, even his most hated enemy. But then, maybe that was the entire point, and they were pleased that, despite everything, Sora was still Sora.

"Hades cannot be killed," Poseidon stated, "And I do not meant that to say that it is not possible to kill him, as I have no doubt that, amongst the many worlds, there exists a way to bring Final Death to one such as us. No, I mean it to say that Hades should not, must not be killed."

"Hades is the Lord of the Dead," Hear explained, "Were he to die, all those bound within his dominion would go free until such time as a new Lord was appointed, as a few of the more rebellious souls did when he slipped free of his chains. His station grants him great power, the least of which is unrestricted access to the Fates, but he is also bound within his station, granting him precious little opportunity to wield the power he has. As you have seen, in direct conflict anywhere but in the heart of his domain, Hades' powers are limited, meaning he is most often forced to work through deals with mortals, his legion of fiends and monsters, the souls of the Underworld, or, more recently, the Heartless."

"When he created the Keyblade of Tortured Souls, using you as a medium, he managed to attain a modicum more freedom," Hephaestus continued, "Enough to slip free of the prison kingdom we bound him in, but not enough to free the bulk of the power it grants him. Hence, he is still forced to rely on his servants for most tasks he wished carried out. That Key must be destroyed."

"Even so, destroying it will not end the conflict," Apollo remarked. "As the old saying goes, there is no use closing the stable door after the horse has already bolted. Destroying the Key will not send him back to his Underworld, but it will prevent him escaping again should he be sent back. It is also unclear whether destroying this Key will prevent Hades from loosing any more of his restrained power or not through the darkness he already wields, but, it will keep him from spreading his dark influence further."

"So how do I cage him up again?" Sora asked. "How do I put the genie back in the lamp?" [2]

"The only way to trap a deity," Athena replied, still gently stroking the head of her blue owl, "Is in a prison of that God's own element."

"You've got a long journey ahead of you, and Hades has quite a head start," Hermes remarked, before Sora could question the Goddess on what she meant. "Those portals you're using currently, great for short distances, but they really put a strain on the ol' heart if you try and go too far. Lucky for you, everywhere you been so far has been in one central hub area, but where Hades went, well, you're gonna need somethin' better, and those Dark Corridors just ain't safe for regular use, especially not for the Princess here, so we got you a going away present." Spinning his staff around above his head, he brought one end down on the sandstone floor, before snapping his fingers, and with the roar of an engine, a very familiar shape appeared hovering over the side of Mount Olympus.

"The _Highwind_!" Sora exclaimed, running closer to the edge to examine his old gummi ship. "Where... How did you get it?"

"It's not the original," Hephaestus explained, "That one is still in Disney Castle. This one we, or should I say, **I**, built especially for you. You can call this one the _Highwind II_. We knew you'd come here eventually; that you came here as soon as you did was fortunate."

With a friendly, and almost fatherly, smile, Zeus remarked, "Go now, Sora. Fulfill your destiny."

As Sora and the girls headed towards their new ship, having said their goodbyes to Hercules and the deities, Aphrodite gave them one last message. "Remember, heroes, that the gates of Olympus are always open to you. And should you lose your way, you can find it again here."

* * *

Author's Notes

[1] - The 'X' in 'X-Blade' is actually meant to be the Greek letter 'chi', meaning the correct pronunciation of 'X-Blade' is 'Chi-Blade'. Despite it being spelt the same way in Japanese, it was a deliberate pun from Square-Enix.

[2] - Technically, the phrase used here should be 'put the genie back in the bottle'. However, it occurred to me that Sora has personally known two genies, neither of which were contained in bottles, but were instead contained in lamps.

I've noticed I use 'Xehanort' and 'Master Xehanort' fairly interchangeably, just like how I don't always refer to Yen Sid as 'Master Yen Sid'. It should be fairly obvious when I don't include the 'Master' which Xehanort I mean though.

Man, this chapter just took _forever_ to write... Part of me feels that the ending's kinda weak, but this chapter was already getting huge and wordy, so... I dunno, maybe I'll go back and edit it later, once I think up something better. In any case, I believe I have established my version of canon concerning all of the events that predate the original game. I.e. the events before, in, and directly after the Birth By Sleep game. As such, I am no longer worried if anything that is revealed later, when Birth By Sleep is released in English come September, will clash with anything I use in my story.

Hopefully, chapter 19 won't take me as long to write as this one did, but I'm not going to make any promises; I've noticed that I'm not especially good at keeping them.


	20. Don't Stop Moving

- Shades of Grey -

Chapter 19 - Don't Stop Moving (Or The Darkness Will Overtake You)

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

_

* * *

_

Today they told us to go to the Round Room, where we met our new member, No. XIV. Was I like that when I first got here? I think I was. But I don't remember too well.

_Me and Axel went on a mission to Twilight Town. Afterwards, we went and had ice cream again up on the clock tower. He said friends do stuff like that. Or they laugh together. So does that mean me and him are friends?_

_I was partnered up with No. XIV for today's mission. **** wore a hood the whole time and wouldn't say a word to me._

_Axel and I talked for a while about the things we can't bear to lose. Axel thinks that for Nobodies, it's our pasts, because that's all we have to remember the pain of losing something. I don't remember my past, but the idea of losing the present-Axel or ****-scares me._

_I don't understand the Organization. I don't understand Axel... I understand myself least of all. Why do I keep coming back to the castle?_

_I'm going to set Kingdom Hearts free and find my way to Sora. I'm going to get **** back. The three of us will have ice cream together again- I know it._

'I don't know why I keep returning to this, as if hoping to find something new, or to remember something.' He snapped the book shut, tossing it absently onto the bed as he strode towards the window, gazing up at the harsh pink glow of the moon. 'I have come to the conclusion that I don't have amnesia; the memories haven't simply been forgotten. They're gone, completely, as if they had never been. Were I capable of it, I imagine this fact should make me upset, but I have neither emotion nor memory. All I have is fact and lies, and the logic to attempt to discern the validity of either.'

He glanced back to the leather-bound book briefly, before turning his gaze back out the window. 'He keeps referring to a name that he neglected to write down. I refer to him as him, not as I, because in a way he is not me. I don't remember being him, as I don't remember my past, but then, I'm told that neither did he, and this book, if it is indeed true, backs up that claim. I know, now, that I'm being lied to, but what is lie and what is truth remain unclear.'

'What is it that sets he and I apart? I read this book and I see written evidence of caring, of concern, of fear and confusion; evidence of a host of emotions I have no basis for. I have been lead to believe that Nobodies base their existence around their past, allowing them to simulate emotions, and the journal backs the theory up. So, if he and I truly began our existence the same, with no memory of our past, what did he have that I didn't?'

He thought again, his mind remembering where, exactly, he received his confirmation that Nobodies consider memory precious. 'Axel. It was a week before he was coherent enough to write entries into this journal, but it wasn't until Axel befriended him that he began simulating emotions.' He paused, picking up the journal again and flicking through the pages, nodding once when he found the one he wanted. 'They were best friends, apparently. Inseparable, he believed. And yet, Axel betrayed him on more than one occasion, and it was these betrayals that lead to him leaving. Yet he came back, because of her...'

'Number Fourteen,' he brushed a finger along the blank space where her name should be, as if there was some secret, invisible word that would appear. 'None of the records name her, nor mention any details about her. If it weren't for this book, I think she would have been forgotten completely. Could it be as Xurik said? Could she have been this... Namine?' He paused in thought. 'It is said that Number Fourteen came from Castle Oblivion, and so, too, did Namine. Namine is not named anywhere else in this book, so it is possible. Why, though, would the castle's records not contain her? Why would he not name her in his journal, a place he named every other minor detail of his existence? This I don't understand.'

He shook off his reflection, returning to his original train of thought. 'Is it these connections with Axel and Number Fourteen that allowed him the memories to base emotions from? Without those connections, those... friendships, will I stay as I am now, with nothing but cold logic?' He dropped down onto his bed, laying down as he absently flicked through pages in the journal. 'Both Axel and Number Fourteen betrayed him, and on more than one occasion. They lead to his exile, and defeat. If I'm to avoid suffering his fate, perhaps it would be best if I stop concerning myself with what was. I can't do anything about the past, assuming it's even mine, and without a past to define me, I must decide how to define myself.'

'Number Thirteen, Roxas, the Key of Destiny. That is how he was known. Though he and I share the same form, he is not I, nor I he. That name is tied to a past that is and is not my own. The number gives me my station, and grants me control over the Samurai. The name gives me form, and as this form affects both my so-called allies and my enemies equally, it, too, shall I keep. The title, however, shall remain his and his alone. He walked in the Realm of Light, but the Realm of Darkness holds no fear for me, so I shall walk between. My title shall be The Master of Twilight, Holder of the Keys of Light and Darkness. Thus am I reborn.'

Roxas could feel the new power flowing through him. As a being of Nothingness, his form was indeed, as he suspected, based solely on memory; his face, his hair, his weapons, his everything, was the way it was because that was the way his core believed it should be. By redefining his core being within the confined of his own mind, he redefined the abilities he had at his disposal; a risky process for most, as their memories were what they were, and fought change. Thus did Roxas' weakness become his strength, as, with no memories to base his core on, his core truly could be anything he believed it to be.

His musing, and his flexing of his newfound powers, were brought to a halt as his door opened and Xurik strode in uninvited, remarking in what passed for an annoyed tone, "When are you going to get off your lazy ass and finish off Sora? The witch is getting impatient. You _do_ want to be whole don't you?"

Roxas blinked, snapping his journal shut and setting it aside as he remarked, "You know, Number Fifteen, I was just considering that myself, and I don't believe I have a _reason_ to 'want' to be. I don't believe I am even capable of 'wanting' something; desire is, after all, an emotion."

Xurik grit his teeth, growling, "My name is Xurik."

Roxas shook his head. "No, you chose the moniker, but that does not make it your name. You have simply... appropriated it. I think Number Fifteen is far more accurate."

"What the hell gives you the right to decide that?" Xurik barked.

"Clarity," Roxas replied, "Because, by clinging to a false past, you're not defining yourself as you, but as the person you appropriated the name from."

Xurik just rolled his eyes. "Look, can you just cut the Zen crap and answer the question so I can leave and do more important things, like be anywhere you're not?"

"You may tell the witch that I am not her servant, her errand boy, or her soldier. I am I, and if she wishes to continue to stay in _MY_ castle, she had best keep her nose out of Organization business. As the highest rank Nobody remaining, I am free to do or not do whatever I wish. If she must know something, however, you may tell her that I believe I know of a way to defeat Sora, and am leaving today to see if my belief is fact."

"Oh?" Xurik asked; killing Sora was his life's goal, after all, so if Roxas truly had found a way he wanted to know it.

Roxas just shook his head. "I don't trust you with this theory. All I'll tell you is I'm going to Castle Oblivion."

"Vexen, Zexion and Axel documented the whole place. What do you expect to find there that the Organization didn't?"

Roxas smiled, believing the gesture appropriate. "Answers."

o-o-o

Yen Sid was right. The answers he sought, and received, did indeed shake the foundations of his beliefs. For almost a whole year, Riku had steamed to himself about failing his Awakening. For many months, he had harboured such anger towards Sora for taking what he felt was rightfully his. And in the year and a half after that, he had done everything in his power to make amends for his past failures. Now, over the course of a handful of hours, most everything Riku believed had been proven wrong, and now, he was struggling to reaffirm his place in the world.

It felt fitting, in a way, to re-evaluate his life from atop the clock tower of Twilight Town, considering the countless hours of soul searching Roxas was reported to have done here, if Ansem and Namine were correct; Namine he had no reason to doubt, and were it not for her backing up Ansem's stories, Riku would no doubt have called bullshit on him by now. Besides, he'd witnessed Roxas sitting with his virtual friends up here when the Nobody was imprisoned in the Simulated Twilight Town, and that behaviour had to come from somewhere.

The knowledge that his Keyblade was _always_ destined to be his Keyblade, and that the Kingdom Key was always Sora's, left Riku feeling... freer. As if, with that knowledge, a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He still felt he needed to repay Sora for helping him attain his blade, but no longer did he feel the need to repent for what he had put Sora through; his Keyblade was the proof that Sora had forgiven him. He would continue to protect Sora, but as a friend, instead of a supplicant.

Much of the power Sora had, which Riku had coveted, he had learned he could attain. His knowledge of the Arcane Arts Riku could be trained in, either by someone else, or through self-tutoring, given that he had a limited grasp of magic already. His Drive forms were, in fact, not a function of Good Fairy crafted Magic Pants, but were instead a function of a Keyblade Wielder's ability to draw on the strengths of those close to their heart; though, Yen Sid had admitted, the clothes _were_ a potent foci for both mana and drive. Even the ability to use two Keyblades, or to change the powers of a Keyblade through keychains, was possible, so long as the connections existed.

Turning that last thought over in his head, Riku felt that, somehow, he wouldn't be satisfied with modifying Way to the Dawn with a keychain, without very special circumstances. Sora, he knew, was special; he had always known that, even if he hadn't known exactly how. Much of Sora's power came from other people; which, he supposed, was why Sora began winning so much once he'd started, and once other people, especially Kairi, believed he could. Riku, however, had always believed in his own strength, and he felt that, using a keychain, and thus the strength of someone else's heart, would be cheating himself of potential, much-needed growth.

There was one question Riku still had, one he had not thought to ask until he was riding the train back to Twilight Town: why it was that he was the one to gift Kairi with her Keyblade.

Riku remembered where he had found the charm that had come to represent Kairi's 'Floral Fallal' Keyblade. Back when he had been working for Maleficent, he had found the charm in the ruins that made up Hollow Bastion. In his juvenile mind, he had taken finding a paopu-shaped charm, after Destiny Islands had been destroyed, to be a sign that he would be the hero who would awaken the Princess, and, having no paopu fruit to share with her, had kept the charm to give to her upon her recovery instead.

When he had lost in combat to Sora not once, but twice, the second time with Ansem controlling him like a puppet, it had shattered his belief that Kairi would ever be his, and so, when he had been rescued from the Darkness by Mickey, he was surprised to find he still had the charm. Rather than throw it away, he'd held onto it, if only as a memento of what his fruitless obsession had wrought. It wasn't until he had rescued Kairi from Organization XIII did he realise what, exactly, he had held onto all those months.

Ever since he'd let Namine and Axel go, Riku'd been doing his best to keep track of them. That's how he'd known they'd paid a visit to Destiny Islands, Namine paying a visit so she could see the girl that held Sora's heart; and, it was how he'd known the two of them had come to the Castle, though he did feel some remorse that Axel'd had to sacrifice himself to save Sora from a flood of Dusks. After Namine had rescued Kairi, it was only through force of will that she was able to stay separate, so when he'd shown up, she'd returned to her Somebody with a smile on her face, leaving him to protect Kairi in her place, and to return her to Sora.

They'd found Sora alright, and, as was quickly becoming his standard, the brunette teen was up to his eyeballs in Heartless. Before he could stop her, Kairi had taken a running leap off the balcony they'd been on, rushing to Sora's aid. In a flash of light, a new Keyblade had appeared in Riku's left hand, the paopu charm dangling from the pommel, and, instinctively, he knew that it was Kairi's weapon. To this day, though, he didn't know why he'd been entrusted to give it to her, instead of the weapon finding her like his and Sora's had.

Was it because she was a Princess of Heart? Was it because she was off her home world when she attained the strength of heart to use it? Was it because Riku himself, a Keyblade wielder, had found it while her heart was lost, before she'd attained that strength? Or was there some other, hidden meaning? He hadn't known then, and he didn't know now.

He chose to believe that, by giving her the weapon with which she could protect Sora, he was telling her that, though he loved her too, or thought he did at least, he could and did accept that she loved Sora. Sure, that belief wasn't entirely true, but it helped him stay sane.

He sighed, pushing Kairi from his mind. Sora was right, Kairi could not be his Light, and he accepted it now. So, the question was, if he could be saved, if he could, indeed, cast off the Darkness, where was his Light? He had no idea, but, somehow, he knew exactly where to start looking.

To find his way out, he needed to start from the beginning again.

o-o-o

"Hey Sora, what's the Beast like? I never got a chance to meet him when we were all on Hollow Bastion." The redhead grinned, adding, "Donald, Goofy and I were too busy running for our lives from Ansem to see where he was."

"Well, you've seen the pictures right?" When Kairi and Namine both nodded, Sora continued, "Well, he's a bit rough around the edges, but under that gruff exterior he's got a good heart. He also really loves Belle, even if he has more trouble admitting that to himself than I did realising I loved you girls."

As both girls blushed, like Sora had secretly hoped, Namine tilted her head to one side, asking, "Hey, where's that music coming from?"

Pausing to listen, Sora nodded once, remarking, "They must be in the ballroom." Snapping his fingers, Sora used a combination of magic and darkness to change his clothes into a tuxedo, bowing fairly gentlemanly, though the grin on his face spoiled the image. "M'ladies, shall we?"

Giggling to themselves, and accepting the offered arm each as he straightened, Kairi remarked, "You've gotta teach us how to do that Sora. We're not really dressed for a party."

"That's okay Kairi. I think I get how he did it." It took Namine considerably longer to figure out how to do than it had Sora, but by the time they reached the top of the main stairs, and the door to the ballroom, Namine cast her spell, combining her own illusions with Kairi's light, to change their clothes into mirroring fuchsia dresses, the bodice passing over only one shoulder on each girl and wrapping around her under the other arm; Kairi, on Sora's right, had the single strap over her right shoulder, and Namine, over her left. The skirts on both dresses came down to just short of their ankles, revealing the short-heeled matching shoes.

Kissing both girls on the cheek, Sora stated softly, "You both look beautiful," before releasing them long enough to push the large doors leading into the ballroom open. Sora's brain almost short-circuited, however, at the sight that greeting him inside; in fact, if not for the two girls that took his arms again and drew him inside, he no doubt would've stopped walking. All around the ballroom were other people who, despite their finery, looked more like servants than anything. And, in the middle of the ballroom, Belle was dancing with a handsome gentleman in a blue suit.

Before they could enter too far, however, they were met by a flamboyant sandy-haired man, a white cloth hanging over the sleeve of his shirt, and a rose sitting in the pocket of his black vest. Smiling brightly, the man exclaimed, "Monsieur Sora, mesdames! It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight."

Blinking rapidly, Sora thought to himself, 'I know that voice!' "Lumiere?" When the man nodded, Sora grinned brightly, adding, "So he broke the curse then did he?"

"Oui!" By this time, much attention had been drawn to the newcomers at the door; it was only the fact that the master had finished his dance with Belle, and was approaching Sora, that kept the other servants from greeting him. "And now, monsieur, mesdames, may I introduce you to, Prince Adam and Princess Belle."

Laughing joyfully, Belle added, "Thank you Lumiere, and may _I_ introduce _you_ to Princesses Kairi and Namine." A hushed gasp passed through the assembled servants, before Belle detached herself from Adam's arm and rushed to greet the two girls properly, and introduce them to the rest of the staff.

Shaking the Prince's hand, Sora smiled, tilting his head slightly towards Belle and asking rhetorically, "So, she finally knows huh?"

Adam smiled back, replying, "Yes, she does at that. I was so frantic with worry after she came back that I could hold it in no longer, so I told her, and she, in turn, told me." Clapping a hand on Sora's shoulder, the older man turned him slightly to face the three girls before asking, "So, do _they_ know?"

"They know," Sora answered. "They even know the other knows."

"Then this truly is a time for celebration isn't it? Do you have time to join us?"

Sora smiled, remembering how much he'd wanted to dance with Kairi when he'd seen first Adam and Belle, then Jack Skellington and Sally dancing. "We have all the time in the worlds."

o-o-o

"Are you sure about this Your Majesty?"

"I have to know Donald," Mickey replied firmly, as the trio of Disney World residents strode towards the castle; specifically, the castle basement. "I'm well aware that I'm not exactly their favourite person right now, but we have to take the risk. Besides, I highly doubt they'd simply kill me without parlaying. They're still civilized."

"It's only that civility that prevented Vincent and Nanaki taking action when they saw your ship landing; well, that, and the fact neither Sora nor Kairi are here." Looking up, the trio of anthropomorphic animals noticed Squall 'Leon' Leonhart, gunblade sheathed at his waist, standing in the middle of the path before them, arms crossed. Leaning against the wall on the opposite side was Cloud, his completed Fusion Sword resting against the wall beside him, and, sitting on the ledge opposite, legs dangling over the side, was a dark-haired girl in blue none of them recognized. Sound behind them indicated the arrival of Yuffie, Tifa, Cid, an unknown man in a red cape, and a red-furred lion-like creature. "So," Squall spoke again, "Give us one good reason not to run you off our world."

"I need to access the DTD," Mickey replied simply. When the Restoration Committee members shifted uneasily, all save Vincent, Cloud, and Squall, Mickey continued, "I need to find out what information, if any, Ansem the Wise, and Xehanort, had about a man called 'Vanitas'. Surely you're not all too young to remember him?"

Yuffie and Rinoa were, in truth, the only ones there who didn't remember Vanitas, but rather than say anything, they waited. It was Cid who replied for the group, drawling, "Yer, we remember him. Lot o' no good he was. Don't really answer the question does it though? Why do you need to know what the DTD has about 'im?"

"Because a decade ago, during the final battle, I saw Vanitas' face." Mickey explained. "It wasn't until recently, however, that I remembered his face, when I realised something that shook me to my core. Vanitas looked almost identical to Sora." Yuffie and Rinoa gasped in shock, and even the others looked uneasy about this revelation; all bar Cloud and Vincent. "I need to find out why. I hope I'm wrong, but if I'm right, it spells trouble."

Squall glanced at Cloud, who, in turn, shared a look with Vincent, before all three men nodded. "Alright then, you can access the DTD to find out what it knows; but we're going to be there when you do." Glancing at the girl on the railing beside him, he added, "Rinoa, Yuffie, you two can go. I don't think I want you guys to see this." Rinoa, he knew, would leave as he asked, but he expected Yuffie to protest, like she usually did whenever she was excluded from anything; he was, therefore, quite surprised when the kunoichi bounded off without a word. 'Obviously', he mused to himself, 'the revelation that Sora may look like a villain of years past has shook her.'

The walk to the computer room was silent, uncomfortably so for some there, but no one was game to break it. The echo of their footsteps was the only sound until they passed through Ansem's study, and into the computer room that housed the AI Tron, and the data repository known as the DTD. "Hey, Tron, are you there?"

"Why do you ask that User Leon?" The disembodied voice of Tron replied, "Would I be elsewhere?"

Squall simply rolled his eyes, and ignored the playful tone in Tron's computerised voice; it wasn't the first time the AI had asked him that, and it wouldn't be the last, but now wasn't the time. "Tron, we need you to access the DTD and see if you can find any information on a being known as 'Vanitas'."

"Processing query," Tronfs voice announced cheerfully, the small screen showing the AI's face being replaced by a spinning disk. After a few moments more of tense silence, Tron's face reappeared, announcing, "File located, displaying on main screen." The main display lit up with various files, documents and pictures, though none showed the being's face, just the helmet he wore. "Entity Vanitas, origin unknown. Reported to be the source of entities classified Unversed, origin also unknown." Tron's voice trailed off, before he continued, "There doesn't seem to be all that much fact in this file, just a lot of rumour. It does appear User Xehanort has cross-linked this file with another named 'Ventus'."

"Display file Ventus," Mickey stated firmly. "Check for current location."

"Processing query," Tron was decidedly less cheery this time, before announcing, "File found, displaying on main screen. Keyblade Apprentice Ventus, origin Land of Departure. Records incomplete, current location known. Recorded by User Xehanort to be the Chamber of Waking, location unknown." The recitation monotone returned to Tron's cheerful voice as he added, "Curious. File photos of Ventus bear a striking resemblance to recorded images of Nobody Roxas." As if to prove his point, Tron displayed images of the two side by side.

While disturbed at the implications, Squall had to ask, "Tron, where did the pictures of Roxas come from? I didn't think he'd ever come here."

"True User Leon. Source images of Nobody Roxas come from two sources. One, Sora's encounter with Roxas atop the Altar of Naught was recorded by Royal Chronicler Jiminy. The other was through updates made by User Xehanort, which continued until User Sora's awakening."

"Xehanort came here?" Mickey was stunned; when had the Nobody leader come here? More importantly, why? "What was he doing here? Surely he didn't return just to keep his files up to date."

"Negative." Tron replied, "It appears User Xehanort used a program on a disk, locked with a six word passcode, to access a location between the manufactory, created around the time the manufactory itself was. I believe I could open this passage without the program, but I would need the six passcodes."

"Six passcodes... Six..." Inspiration struck as Mickey remembered the last set of passcodes Xehanort had used. "They must be names. Xehanort used the names of the seven Princesses of Heart for the DTD. If this room was constructed around the time Xehanort was apprenticed to Ansem the Wise, I can only assume that the apprentices' names were the passcodes. Try 'Xehanort', 'Braig', 'Dilan', 'Even', 'Aeleus', 'Ienzo'."

A buzzer sounded, as Tron replied, "Passcode 'Xehanort' not accepted. Passcodes 'Braig', 'Dilan', 'Even', 'Aeleus', and 'Ienzo' accepted. Please enter final passcode."

Stumped, Mickey was startled slightly when Vincent remarked, "Another."

"Passcode accepted. Accessing Chamber of Repose."

While Mickey really wanted to know just how Vincent knew the right anagram of an x-free Xehanort was the passcode, he was far more interested in what Xehanort would deem important enough to hide away and seal behind all these layers of security. Taking the elevator down to the floor of the manufactory, Mickey, followed by Cloud, Squall, and Vincent, paused as a massive section of the floor opened up, revealing a ramp beneath the machine; a ramp which disappeared shortly after they'd crossed it, the secret door closing behind them. The platform they'd reached at the base of the initial ramp connected to a long, spiral ramp, travelling quite a long distance beneath the castle.

When the ramp finally levelled out, all bar Vincent couldn't even see the top of the spiral any more. The door at the base lead into a long white corridor, full of keypad-locked doors, which judging by the bars on the triangular windows could only have been cells. The doors at the end, however, caused much pause to the four seasoned warriors, as, atop the chains decorating the middle of both doors, was the Nobody symbol.

Opening the doors, they found a large circular chamber inside, a white throne in the very centre, and, from it, black chain patterns leading away from the chair to the walls, where they connected to more Nobody symbols at various heights. It was what they found on the other side of the throne, however, that finally caused Mickey to gasp in shock. A very familiar blue-and-black suit of armour, lying on the ground, near an even more familiar blue-and-silver Keyblade.

A tear falls from Mickey's eye, as he says a single word that seems to hang in the air. "Aqua."

o-o-o

Sora carefully guided the /Highwind II/ away from Agrabah, listening to the girls talking about their visit there, to make sure Jasmine got home safely; not that there was much chance she wouldn't, with Genie as her escort, but they felt they had to check, as they had with Belle. Clearing the debris around the planet that Sora assumed was the remains of the barrier keeping outsiders off the world, and thankful that Heartless ships seemed to be at an all-time low, Sora set the ship to auto-pilot, thinking back over his biggest concern, the advice he'd received about it.

He'd first brought it up with Be- uh, Adam, while he'd been discussing Namine's origins with the older man. Initially, Sora hadn't wanted to burden his friend, but, after all was said and told, he trusted Adam; the fact that, as the Beast, he'd saved Sora's life on more than one occasion helped a lot in that regard. So, he told him straight, about his Nobody Roxas, about how Roxas has sacrificed himself to save Sora's heart, and about how, now that Roxas was free again, he was afraid that meant he'd fallen into darkness and became a Heartless, albeit one who'd retained his human form.

Prince Adam had listened calmly to Sora's fears, before asking him a simple question that actually disrupted many of Sora's concerns: Did it change anything? He'd gone on to explain that, as far as he understood, Nobodies who retained their human forms acted much like they did in life, because they had memories of that life that shaped their personalities, just looked at through a new, emotion-free lens; Roxas and Namine were exceptions here, as having no real personalities of their own to fall back on, they'd made their own. He then explained that he knew about the Heartless Ansem, and how the leader of the Organization was his Nobody, so he'd asked Sora another simple question: Did Ansem and Xemnas act alike?

The only answer Sora could give was 'yes'. Ansem and Xemnas were near identical in how they acted, though Xemnas was more cold and ruthless, while Ansem was more zealous and expressive. Adam pointed out that was evidence that, Heartless or Nobody, a person still acted the much the same so long as they managed to retain their human form and mind, being able to override the baser instincts of their mindless kin. Adam had added, with a laugh, that as long as Sora didn't desire to consume the hearts of people and worlds, then whether he was a Heartless or not didn't matter in the grand scheme of things; that had brought Sora out of his funk for long enough to realise he hadn't yet locked the Keyhole to the heart of Adam's Castle, a problem easily solved.

His improved mood had lasted halfway to Agrabah, but rather than brood on the subject like he had before, he'd brought it up during conversation with Aladdin, while Jasmine and the girls were busy elsewhere. Expecting either a similar speech, or a reproach of some kind, Sora was quite surprised when Aladdin started laughing. When the former street rat had calmed down, Aladdin had told him that he didn't believe for a moment that Sora was no longer human, no matter what had happened to him, and what was more likely was that the 'Roxas' he fought was a trick by Maleficent, to do exactly what had happened; to throw Sora off his game, and make him doubt himself.

The girls had returned before Aladdin had said any more, and, sensing his desire to keep it from them, they'd dropped the subject. Sora actually wondered if the youth hadn't been right; that sort of trick was right up Maleficent's alley, like when she turned Riku against him. He needed another opinion, he realised. A tie-breaker. He had two good, trusted opinions, both of which could be right, and each of which carried different complications. He needed someone else to help him sort through everything. And he knew exactly where to get it.

"Sora!" Startled from his thoughts, he spun around to see both Kairi and Namine staring at him, the latter curious, the former irritated. "Finally you lazy bum. I've been trying to get your attention for ages now."

Namine giggled. "If by 'ages' you mean 'two minutes'."

Rolling her eyes at her sister, Kairi continued, "Where are we going next?"

Sora smiled, glad it was an easy question. "I was just thinking of that myself, and I'd reached an idea I wanted to share with you before you so rudely interrupted me. I was thinking we'd go to the Pride Lands. I would like to make sure Simba and Nala are still okay, and lock the Keyhole of that world to help make sure the Heartless leave them alone."

The two girls huddled together, whispering to each other, before nodding and standing straight again, as Kairi stated, "Okay, as long as the three of us get to spend some alone time in that oasis you told us about."

Sora smiled at the two girls, walking over to give them each a kiss before replying, "Deal."

o-o-o

"This place never changes." There was a certain fondness in his words; ironic really, that after his obsession to leave, and all his travels, he actually found relief to be back home. "A small world, but part of one much, much bigger." He remembered now, remembered exactly where the idea to leave the islands came from. He'd told Terra hadn't he? He wanted to leave the islands and visit other worlds, because someone before him had done the same. Ironic too, that the man who gave him reason to leave the islands was the man who brought his downfall. He could believe it, though, could believe that Xehanort was the man who had left the islands and never looked back; after all, as Yen Sid had said, he and Xehanort were quite alike.

"This is where it all started. Where I first looked out over the ocean, and said to myself, 'I want to see what's out there, outside of my little bubble'. Where the darkness first took me. My road down darkness started here. It seems fitting that I start my journey to light here too." Turning around to face the figure he knew was behind him, he added wistfully, "Doesn't it?"

The black-cloaked figure on the bridge just grinned coldly, asking, "Do you always talk to yourself?"

Riku just smiled back. "I would say that I was, in fact, talking to you, but then, that doesn't exactly make your statement false, does it Xurik?"

"No, I suppose it doesn't," Xurik drawled, adding, "You know, you weren't exactly hard to find."

"Well, I wasn't exactly hiding," Riku sassed back.

"So, what happens now?" Xurik sneered.

"It wasn't ours, you know." Riku remarked casually. When Xurik just continued to state at him questioningly, he clarified, "Sora's Keyblade. It wasn't ours. We didn't lose it to him. No, what we lost was this-" He summoned Way to the Dawn "-because we couldn't overcome our own darkness. I still haven't, really, but I'm closer now than we were before."

"Don't talk about me like we're the same! We're not!" Xurik snarled, summoning Way to the Dusk. "I'm not weak like you are. You're afraid of who you are, your true self; me. Remember when we promised we'd do whatever it took to get stronger, and to save Kairi? What happened to that, huh weakling? You screwed up, and now she's damaged goods."

"Don't you talk about her that way!" Riku roared, launching a Dark Firaga just past his Nobody's head, which sailed into the distance to scorch the mountain behind him. "You have no right to talk about her, at all, after what you tried to do. Yes, I loved Kairi, and yes, in my way, I still do, but I realise now that I don't love her like Sora does. She's family. And I won't let anyone hurt my family, especially not me, and ESPECIALLY not you."

"Touched a nerve did I?" Xurik remarked, casually brushing aside the singed hairs. "Face it, Riku, you're still weak; still cowering from the Darkness inside you, pleading to the feeble Light to save you from yourself. That's why you cling to the idea of Kairi being family, rationalizing to yourself that even if she can't be _your_ Light, you can still borrow some of it to chase away the monsters. That's where you and I differ. Unlike you, I'm not afraid of anything! I embrace the Darkness! I can make it do whatever I want, can make the beings that dwell in it do whatever I want. I other words, I'm stronger than you!"

Riku burst out laughing, much to Xurik's irritation. "Oh man," Riku remarked, mostly to himself, "I can't believe I ever actually felt like that. I mean, I always thought that Replica made that stuff up, but, here you are." Managing to get himself under control, he added, "You were doing so well too. You made me confront my feelings about Kairi, then, when I found something I could be satisfied with, you cast doubt on that too. 'A' for effort. You screwed yourself on the conclusion there though. You're not the first me to tell me those exact words, and he couldn't beat me either."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Xurik barked.

"What? You never heard about Vexen's 'Riku Replica'?" Riku smirked, "You should really look it up some day."

"I'm no fake! I'm you, only better!"

Reaching his left hand up, Riku grasped the neck of his own black coat, releasing his hold over his weapon for half a second as he threw the coat off, and grabbing it again so quickly you'd never know he let go. "Care to back that up with action, or are you all talk?"

o-o-o

"So this is Castle Oblivion? Doesn't look like much from the inside." From what he'd read on the computer back at the castle, while Xemnas had built, or rather, shaped, their castle himself, Castle Oblivion was something they discovered. In fact, it was the discovery of this castle that lead to Xemnas recruiting more members for the Organization; members that would then go on to use their own station to gain control over the Keyblade Master in the hopes they could use him to destroy Xemnas for them. 'How did they ever expect that to work? If Sora was weak enough for them to control him, he wouldn't be strong enough to defeat Xemnas for them.'

Castle Oblivion looked quite impressive from the outside, almost entirely bronze in colour, with teal and aqua highlights, made up entirely of sharp edges. One had to wonder, though, who it was that had built this place? All that Roxas cared about, though, was finding out why Namine was born here. 'If Xemnas really intended for this castle to be a second base, then it'll have a computer room somewhere. Especially if Vexen was stationed here. The question is, where?'

If Roxas remembered this place correctly, the castle had thirteen floors, and twelve basements, any of which could contain a computer room. 'They didn't make this easy did they? It's like someone deliberately designed this place so no one could find anything here... Well, I don't have a choice. I'll start with the upper floors, because that's apparently the route Sora took here, meaning it's the most likely place to find Namine's room.'

Roxas had almost reached the far door, leading to the stairs up to the next level, when he suddenly felt a sharp, crushing pressure in his skull, like someone had reached into his head and was trying to crush his brain. Falling to his knees, he clutched his head with both hands, shuddering slightly as the pain started to dim. In its place, however, his entire body felt like it was on fire; no, it felt like his black coat was burning him.

Using both hands, Roxas quickly ripped the black coat off, throwing it as far away from him as possible, and leaving him in his street clothes; white jacket with red collar, black shirt, black pants with beige legs, and black trainers with red laces. In his haste to rip his cloak off, though, he also managed to break the chain around his neck, holding his four-point star pendant. Instinctively, he raised one hand to catch it before it could hit the ground, but when it landed in his palm, Roxas was surprised to not see his amulet there. Instead, the pendant he'd caught looked very much like the Nobody symbol, only upside down, more compact, and blockier.

He began seeing double, but, strangely, though he could see his hand twice, each hand held a different pendant, and, as he watched, which hand held which flickered back and forth, between the blocky pendant, and the star pendant he knew. "What's... What's going on?"

As his vision started fading entirely, and his strength with it, he heard footsteps approaching. Collapsing to the ground, he glanced up to see a man in a black coat lean down, who answered his question with, "You're getting exactly what you truly came here for: truth. More truth than you can handle. And you, Roxas, will lead me to truth of my own."

* * *

Author's Notes

Ooh, foreshadowing. Anyone care to place bets on who the new shadowy figure is?

This one just took _forever_ to write. I blame a combination of writer's block, running pen-and-paper RPGs, and a desire to go back and play old games again. At least, with this chapter down, we're one step closer to the thrilling conclusion.

Don't worry though. I have plenty more ideas for once this arc is finished, don't you worry.

Interestingly, in the space of two days I've not only managed to complete this chapter from two scenes long, I've also half-completed the next chapter, and at the rate I'm going, I fully expect to complete it too before next week. Amazing what difference your muse working _with_ you rather than _against_ you can make.


	21. Hakuna Matata

- Shades of Grey -

Chapter 20 - Hakuna Matata

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

_

* * *

You could be just what the kingdom needs. Maybe you can help us._

_You mean Simba's alive! But where is he?_

_**Sometimes bad things happen and there's nothing you can do about it.**_

_**I'm going back to face my past. I could use your help.**_

_You may not know what it is, but it still IS. This world, it is full of many such things. And these things, a king must face._

_**You know, I'm really lucky to have friends who'll stand by me...and help me see clearly.**_

_The king has returned! The Pride Lands will not forget King Simba's courage. Or the courage of those who fought beside him._

_The struggle never ends. That is the great Circle of Life. The secret to victory...is a strong heart._

The hardest thing about beaming down to the Pride Lands, Sora could remember, was quickly having to adapt to now having four legs instead of two. Fortunately, it was also quite like riding a bike, in that once you'd gotten used to it, other than a moment of disorientation, you could pick it up quickly without making an idiot of yourself. Kairi and Namine, on the other hand, weren't quite so fortunate, because, unlike Sora, they'd never had to deal with their body changing to adapt the world they were on, meaning he was forced not to laugh at his ladies, because he well knew that, if he did, they would brutally murder him once they found their feet.

Sora, much to his annoyance, was still a lion cub. He still had the mess of brown hair that made up his mane, and his striking blue eyes, along with the chain medallion around his neck, but otherwise, he was a brown-furred lion cub; sure, he was a little bigger than last time he was here, and his fur was a shade darker, but... still a cub. His only consolation was that the girls were still only cubs too. Being female, neither had their human hairstyles as a mane, so their hair colour merely transferred into the colour of their fur, Kairi's being a deep red-brown, almost like the colour of rust, and Namine's being a pale yellow, similar to the colour of sand. Kairi also still has her teardrop necklace around her neck.

In short, none of their colourations actually looked like a natural lion.

As Sora explained to the girls just how to walk properly on four legs, his ears picked up a few voices behind him, one, female, remarking, "Well, looky what we have here. A trio of cubs from the Outlands pride maybe? Or some from the rock that are playing beyond daddy's reach?"

"Who cares?" The other, this one male, replied, "All that matters is we have ourselves a three-course meal!"

With a sigh, Sora realised that, once again, they'd teleported down into the Elephant's Graveyard, the home of the hyenas. "Man, you lot never learn do you." Turning around to face them, Sora remarked casually, "So, Banzai, what round are we up to?" Summoning his Keyblade into his teeth, he added, "And Shenzi, I don't normally hit girls, but for you, I'll make an exception."

"Whoa, back up, I remember that cat," the female hyena, Shenzi, remarked, "You have a nasty habit of wandering in where you're not welcome don't you?"

"What can I say? I'm special that way." Sora quipped. "Now scram. We'll be out of here shortly."

Scowling, the three hyenas stalked off, Banzai remarking, "Ah, I bet they tasted horrible anyways."

Banishing his Keyblade as he turned back to the girls, Sora asked, "So, you girls got the hang of it yet?" When he found them staring at him strangely, he asked, "What? What's wrong?"

Namine was the first to answer. "Sora, how did you manage to wield the Keyblade in your mouth, and still talk?"

There was a moment of silence as Sora reached a forepaw up to rub the back of his neck, much like he did in human form. "Huh... You know, I don't think it's ever come up before."

o-o-o

Riku could remember, what felt like a lifetime ago, how he and Sora used to duel with wooden swords oh this very island, ducking and weaving around the paopu and coconut trees. Every battle seemed so important then, one more notch, and one more thing to brag about. It all seemed so trivial now, but back then, every fight felt like life or death; poetic, then, that he should be fighting an actual life or death battle upon that very same island.

"Hyah!" Riku leapt to one side, dodging out of the way as Xurik swung around, bringing Way to the Dusk around in an over-the-shoulder arc, and striking the sandy islet with a flare of dark energy. He brought Way to the Dawn up to parry the next blow, the recoil of the two Keyblade meeting sending him off balance for a split second, but before Xurik could press the advantage, Riku retaliated with a Dark Firaga, striking the Nobody in the chest and knocking him backwards.

That only gave Xurik the advantage though as, before Riku could go on the offensive, the Nobody leapt back to his feet, kicking Riku in the chest with both legs and sending him sliding back onto the bridge. Using his left hand to form a Dark Shield, Riku managed to form the barrier just in time to block the slash of dark energy sent his way, but not fast enough to avoid it carving a gash through the bridge. Growling in anger, Riku dispelled his barrier to form another behind him, leaping off it at high speed as he concentrated dark energy into his Keyblade, the energy extending out of his weapon like an elongated blade.

Weaving between the strikes, Xurik leapt into the air, purple-black energy gathering at the tip of his weapon as he shouted, "Heal this!" and stabbed downwards, columns of shadow bursting out of the ground to strike at Riku, and one of them consumed one of the coconut trees completely; fortunately, though, the paopu tree wasn't hit. Leaping back, Xurik held his Keyblade at the ready, taunting his opponent by sneering, "Is that all you've got?"

'This islet's gonna get destroyed if we keep fighting here,' Riku thought quickly, 'But there's no way he'd agree to take it to a new arena. Guess I gotta get creative.' Launching another Dark Firaga at him, he used the purple flames as a distraction while he created a portal behind him, the other end of which was directly behind Xurik, and leaping through. Thus, while Xurik effortlessly batted the fireball aside, the magic sailing over the trees to extinguish in the water, Riku charged into him from behind, gathering magic into his hands and rocketing his Nobody face-first onto the beach, before leaping after him.

Springing to his feet, Xurik gathered dark energy around his Keyblade, shouting, "Welcome oblivion!" as he launched several circle-slashes of dark energy at the approaching Riku, each launched with a swing of Way to the Dusk. Riku, in response, simply shouted, "Dark Cannon!" and fired a wave of dark energy blasts, detonating the attacks before they could reach him, though the recoil of his own attack meant he lost the momentum to land nearer to Xurik.

"It seems you've learned some new tricks since we went our separate ways," Xurik remarked, as he began glowing, "It matters not! Behold the power of darkness!" A dome of darkness at least sixty feet in radius formed around the pair, as Xurik began rapid-teleporting, launching from one portal to another like a bullet out of a gun, each pair of portals aimed towards Riku no matter which direction he dodged. In response, Riku used his own darkness to form thirteen energy swords around him, keeping them vertical, and using them to parry Xurik's attacks, each sword flashing out of existence again as it was struck. Still, Riku was struck more times than he would've liked, and he remembered how this move ended.

"Come Guardian!" The black-and-blue, bandaged Heartless formed itself out of Riku's shadow, folding it's arms over the heart-shaped hole in its chest as it phased in front of Riku, appearing in just enough time to block the waves of violet energy the finishing move of Xurik's Dark Aura unleashed; the bridge, however, was not so lucky, several spikes of energy gouging out new holes. The Seaside Shack, too, was damaged by the energy wave, but it faded out before it could get anywhere near either the tree house, or the dock.

"Ha. Can't win without some help, can you Somebody?" Xurik taunted, casting off his own cloak, and revealing that the clothes beneath were Riku's 'Dark Form'. "Fortunately-" he snapped his fingers, summoning a dozen of his Dark Knight Nobodies "-I have some helpers of my own."

o-o-o

"Sora! How much further is it to Pride Rock?" Namine whined, "It feels like we've been walking for hours."

Sora turned his head to glance back at the blonde lioness, remarking through narrowed eyes, "It's been ten minutes Nam. Surely you're not that out of shape?"

"Well, some of us aren't as used to this whole 'paws' thing," Kairi retorted, defending her sister (and herself, but she didn't like to admit that she was tired too).

Pointing a paw, Sora stated, "See that slanted rock there? That's Pride Rock. We should be able to get there in about half an hour." Both of the girls groaned, but as Sora turned to check on them again, he spotted something on the other side of the savannah, closer to the wildebeest valley. "Wait here girls. There's trouble that way." Before either of them could respond, Sora took off like a shot, easily putting both girls to shame as he used the Dash ability he learnt here.

As he got closer, he could see that the three larger figures harassing the smaller one were Living Bone Heartless, and Sora growled to himself as he realised that this world was still under attack by the Heartless after all this time. He knew, though, that there was no way he could take down the three Heartless before they seriously injured, or worse, the smaller figure; not in this form, anyway. So, he did the only thing he could: lowered himself to the ground, triggered a burst of adrenaline, and tackled the small would-be victim out of the way.

Summoning his Keyblade as he slid across the harsh dirt, Sora sent a quick Cure spell at the one who almost got crushed, noticing now that it was a golden-furred lion cub. Turning his attention towards the Heartless again, Sora darted forward, lashing out with finesse one wouldn't expect of a quadrupedal form, Oblivion slicing clean through the Heartless such that, in a few quick strokes, all that remained was decaying darkness, and three freed hearts.

Turning around to the cub he'd rescued, Sora found himself staring into wide, striking yellow eyes, far too close to his own face for comfort, and the cub quickly revealed herself to be female when she exclaimed, "That was so cool! How did you do that? You were like 'swish', 'swish', 'smack', and they were gone! I've never even seen daddy move that fast before!" Sora backed up slowly, but the lioness cub walked forward at the same time, keeping her face the same distance from Sorafs as she grinned widely, and, Sora had to admit, cutely, as she added, "I'm Kiara. Who're you?"

"He's spoken for." Backpedalling and turning his head, Sora noticed Kairi and Namine had raced after him. Judging by the way Namine was limping slightly, and Kairi's lungs were pumping, no doubt the run didn't do either of them any favours.

Trying to be polite, Sora made the introductions. "Girls, this is Kiara. Kiara, this is Kairi," he nodded his head towards the russet lioness, "and Namine," he indicated the other way. "They're my... well, I guess you'd say mates." Shrugging slightly, he added, "My name's Sora."

Kiara gave him a confused look for a moment. "Sora?" She tilted her head to one side. "You can't be Sora. My daddy told me all about him, an' how he helped him defeat Scar an' save the whole Pride Lands! You're just a cub."

"Who is your father?" Sora asked tiredly, already knowing the answer before she said it.

Kiara tilted her head the other way. "Are you from the Outlands? Everybody knows who my daddy is!"

Sora glared at her half-heartedly with a raised eyebrow. "And does Simba know you're wandering the Savannah on your own?"

Kiara shrank back, doing her best to look innocent and bashful as she laughed nervously. "Uh... Actually, Unca Timon is 'sposed to be watchin' me, but I snuck away 'coz he and Unca Pig are BORING!"

Sighing, Sora remarked, "Well, it's a good thing we were headed that way anyways. The savannah is no place for a cub like you to be wandering alone."

Stamping her paw, and kicking up a tiny dust cloud, Kiara glowered at him. "NO! I'm not goin' back ! I'm havin' a 'venture!"

Kairi just glared back at her. "Listen Kiara, what do you think your father will say when we tell him your adventure almost got you killed?" Kiara yelped slightly at the thought.

Smiling softly at the girl, Namine opted to play the 'good cop'. "If you come back with us now, we'll just tell your father we found you out here. No mention of the scary monsters at all, okay?" Nodding sadly, and, if Sora had to venture a guess, more than a little afraid, Kiara fell into step beside Namine, though, much to both girls' ire, she still sent shy smiles and glances Sora's way. It didn't take much to guess that with Sora saving her life, the girl cub had developed a crush on her rescuer.

Sora just groaned to himself. He did _not_ want to be the one who told Simba about this...

o-o-o

"Hey, fruitcake, quite nice digs you got here. Doing well for yourself I see." Appearing in a burst of blue flame, Hades leant against the nearby doorway. "I did hear though that your scheme went belly-up; but then, I guess we all have a share of that failure now don't we?"

Looking up from the latest document he was writing, Seymour turned his ever-serene gaze towards Hades. "Ah, Master Hades, to what do I owe the pleasure? Are you looking for the dark mistress? I'm afraid I am unaware as to where she and her pet buffoon went."

Hades smiled, replying, "No, I came here to see you. Does the witch know what you are?"

Seymour fought back an eyebrow twitch. "Whatever do you mean?"

"I know what you are, Seymour," Hades remarked simply, smirking. "See, I may not be too good with faces, but I _never_ forget a soul."

"I see..." Seymour stated carefully, "And what, pray tell, do you plan on doing with this knowledge?"

"Me?" Hades just shrugged. "I don't plan on doing anything. However, I figure, that means you owe me. See, me, I'm in a position to do all manner of unkind things to you, and I would too, normally; it'd be worth a good laugh. But I've got bigger problems than a few escapees."

Glancing down at the paperwork scattered across the desk for a brief moment, Seymour asked, "So, what did you want from me?"

"Oh, it's quite simple," Hades commented. "You're going to be my Plan B."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"You don't have to," Hades retorted, "You see, I've got this big plan, and how to deal with that Keybrat, his lady friends, the dark one, even the mouse, but these pesky hero-types, well... They have a nasty habit of foiling plans, no matter how simple or complex, how hasty or well thought out, so, it always helps to have a backup, and you're it."

Seymour just nodded, as if he understood. "I ask again, what would you have me do?"

"Stay free." Hades' reply was quick. "See, this plan of mine fails, I get sent back to the cold Underworld again." Clenching his hand, the blue flames that made up his hair began bleeding red. "I'm not going back to the Underworld. Zeus and the rest of those fuddy-duddies locked me away eons ago because they were afraid of what I would do once I was free. And they were right to fear me. Now that I've tasted freedom, I will do anything to make sure I don't go back there."

"So, you plan to use the fact that a few souls slipped free to ensure that the chains do not tie themselves too tight around your own neck, correct?"

Hades just shrugged, as if bored with the subject, "Eh, something like that."

"So," Seymour prompted, hoping he could get the dark god to leave, "Was there anything else you needed from me right now?"

"Actually, yeah," Hades grinned, "I could use a little assistance on the Keybrat front."

o-o-o

"Kiara! Where have you been young lady?"

The lioness cub shrunk under her father's roar, doing her best to look innocent, her wide blue, pouty eyes almost crowing out the rest of her face, as she replied nervously, "Uh... h-hi daddy... I w-was just-"

"Timon has already told me about how you snuck away from them," Simba cut her off, "so don't try and act like you got lost, or were left behind. What were you thinking about? You know how dangerous it is out there!"

"It's okay Simba, she wasn't in any danger," Sora spoke out, hoping to calm down the lion king. "The girls and I just found her wandering the savannah, checking everything out. I'm sure she was just curious."

Simba turned his glare to the new speaker, mouth already opened to yell at whoever interrupted him, before he realised who it was, anger fading into confusion. "Sora? When did you get here? There's not some new trouble is there?"

"Just a little while ago," Sora shrugged, "And no, there's no trouble; at least, no trouble that concerns the Pride Lands. We're just on a bit of a journey, and we thought, while we were in the area, we'd say hi, make sure things are alright here."

Simba smiled, shaking his mane slightly as he replied, "No, no real problems here; at least, not of the type I can't handle my- Wait, we?" The golden furred lion suddenly realised that Sora had referred to a 'we' more than once, but he didn't see Donald or Goofy anywhere.

Sora smiled, turning to the two young lionesses behind him. "Simba, I'd like you to meet the lights of my life, Kairi and Namine. They're my... I guess you'd call them mates."

Simba smiled, sniffed the air slightly, then smiled wider. "Sisters?"

Before Sora or the girls could answer, a lioness Sora recognized approached, running out of the King's Den towards Simba as she asked, "Simba, what are you still doing here? Have you found her?"

"Don't worry Nala," Simba replied placatingly, turning to face her, "She's fine. Sora brought her back. He brought some new friends with him too." It didn't take too long for Nala to rush over to Kairi and Namine, introducing herself to the girls and taking them off to one side to talk; not before rounding up her daughter, though, as Kiara tried to slip away. Turning away from the girls and back to Sora, Simba asked softly, "So, why don't you tell me what you really came here for?"

Shrugging slightly, and smiling sheepishly, Sora asked quietly, "Is there some place we could talk in private?" With a nod, Simba lead Sora through the King's Den to the summit of Pride Rock. As they passed into the open again, Sora couldn't hold in a laugh. When Simba turned back to him questioningly, Sora just explained, "You know, I only just realised how few people commented on the fact I'm with both Kairi _and_ Namine."

"True friends only care if you're all happy," Simba replied, barking a laugh as he added, "Besides, I'm possibly the least qualified to tell you off about that." This time, Sora was the one giving him the questioning look, so Simba explained, "You see all those lionesses down there?" Sora just nodded. "There's no other lion on Pride Rock." A brief moment of shock passed over Sora's face before he realised that this was the way of the animal kingdom. "Nala may be my alpha mate, if you will, and Kiara is hers, but... Now, why don't you tell me what you really asked me up here for?"

Sora wasted no more time in explaining his problem to Simba, and his fear about his no longer being himself. "I've already asked a few friends and got their opinions, but I haven't told the girls. I guess I'm just afraid of what it might mean."

Simba just smiled, shaking his head slowly. "Sora, you should know what I'm going to say without having to ask." At Sora's curious look, he added simply, "Hakuna Matata."

Sora just rolled his eyes. "I don't think that really helps."

"Doesn't it?" Simba shot back quickly. "Say you're right. Say you truly are a Heartless now. Ask yourself this: What would you do about it? Would you act differently? Would it truly change anything?" As Sora mulled over that, Simba continued. "Let me tell you what I've learnt about you, Sora. You're impulsive. You're not one to sit around pondering, thinking of what the best thing to do would be when you could be doing something right now. You use your heart first, leaving your head to sort out what you did after." Butting heads with Sora, a sign of affection, in this case brotherly, Simba concluded, "Sora, I honestly don't believe that becoming a Heartless would change you one bit. The only way you could ever NOT be you would be if you didn't have a heart."

o-o-o

Standing in the shadow of the twisted tower, Mickey could think of only a handful of things he wanted to do _less_ than returning here, but he needed answers, and this was the one place in all the worlds he knew he could find the answers he sought. After all that had happened, he wasn't sure how much he could trust Yen Sid, but despite how his philosophical belief clashed with Mickey's own, Mickey knew the old Twilight wizard would give him the information he came here for; knowledge was, after all, everything to Yen Sid, and that knowledge be used to better the worlds. Taking a deep breath, the mouse king pushed open the doors to Yen Sid's Tower, striding up the only flight of stairs and through the first portal.

Knowing this tower as he did, he was surprised, once he passed through the archway, to find himself on the final incline of stairs, having skipped the rest of the tower in between. "Welp, I guess he's expecting me," Mickey groused to himself, debating with himself on whether to summon his Keyblade in case Yen Sid had prepared defences against him, but he shook that worry off as paranoia and opted to maintain his diplomatic tongue; walking in with a weapon may only rile the old wizard into the attack his paranoia warned him of.

Pushing open the door to his former Master's study, Mickey found Yen Sid seated behind his desk, hands interlocked before him, and it was the fact the book on the desk was closed that revealed to the mouse king that, yes, Yen Sid had seen this visit coming. "Ah, my wayward apprentice," Yen Sid's baritone voice announced, "It is good to see you again. I had feared you were lost?"

"Lost?" Mickey replied questioningly, "How could I be lost? I stay next to the Cornerstone of Light itself; I couldn't do that if I were lost to darkness."

"Ah, but that is not what I said," Yen Sid retorted with a mysterious smile, "Being lost does not only mean to the darkness, and truly, is the darkness so unique? Can one only be lost in darkness?" Pausing to stroke his beard in thought, he added, "Perhaps, then, I should have said 'blind'. Blinded by the light."

"Ridiculous," Mickey scoffed. "The light illuminates. Has the darkness you insist on surrounding yourself with finally cast its shadow across your light, Master Yen Sid?" Changed beliefs or not, Mickey would continue to give Yen Sid the honorifics he was due, as least so long as things stayed cordial, if only to prevent an incident.

"You still fail to understand," Yen Sid stated sadly, shaking his head slowly, "The key differences between darkness, and evil, perhaps is a distinction that we never made completely clear, my old friend. They find so many similarities, and indeed, they both may walk a path so similar that to tell one from the other can be seen as splitting hairs; but then, the same could be said for telling good from light."

"What are you playing at Master?" Mickey asked hotly, subconsciously reaching a hand back lest he need to summon his weapon.

Yen Sid simply stroked his beard, not even standing from his chair. "I am simply trying to open your eyes. When learning of young Sora's fate, you saw the worst that could come to be. You allowed that prophecy to become the be all and end all, becoming intolerant of any other possibility. You know, as well as I do, that being narrow minded in itself is hardly a quality of good, but to so willingly push a friend aside, without thought of redemption, is far from noble. Even Riku, who was thought to be truly lost, was brought back to the light under your care; yet Sora, one you should have trusted more, was cast aside so quickly..." Stroking his beard again, the aged wizard added, "Are you well, Mickey? Has the burden of your duty weighed so heavily upon you?"

"I didn't come here for a lecture," Mickey replied, ignoring the questions asked of him. As much as it galled him, the old man had a point, but it was something to reconcile later.

"Then why did you come?" Yen Sid asked. "I have naught to give but wisdom and knowledge."

"I came for the latter," Mickey stated, cutting him off before he could offer the former again. "Specifically, I came to find out what happened to Aqua, and you are the only one in all the worlds that I know of who could say."

Yen Sid was quiet for a moment, before asking, "Why have you come asking of her fate now? In the past decade, you have not once desired knowledge of her whereabouts."

"In the past decade, I assumed that she'd gone into hiding after the Unversed War, then I found this." Snapping his fingers, Mickey summoned, with a clatter, the armour and Keyblade he found beneath Radiant Garden. "These were found in a hidden chamber beneath Ansem's Study, and Tron has informed me that Xehanort frequented this room. Why?"

Yen Sid sighed, leaning back in his chair. "It seems it has come time for me to explain what I have discovered happened when you and Aqua parted ways. After taking Ventus' body to safety, Aqua went in search of Terra, but found only Xehanort..."

o-o-o

"Oh wow! Sora, this place is beautiful!"

Sora smiled, nudging Kairi with his head, and turning to reply to Namine, "Even more beautiful for having the two of you in it."

Namine looked down bashfully, shuffling her forepaws, while Kairi nudged Sora back, giving his cheek a quick lick. "You sweet talker you." Kairi did find it a little disconcerting how quickly she became used to acting in this body. Grinning slightly, she asked teasingly, "You sure you don't want Kiara here too?"

"Gah! No!" Sora replied quickly, almost tripping over his feet as he did. "I mean, don't get me wrong, she's a sweet kid - emphasis on 'kid' - but I'm not interested in her that way, and to be honest, I think the only reason she's interested in me at all, besides the fact I rescued her from those Heartless, is that I'm probably the first male lion besides her father that she's ever met."

Giggling slightly, Kairi commented, "You make a fair point." Glancing around the oasis, she asked, "So how did you find this place?"

"When we were looking for Simba. This used to be where he lived, before we convinced him to return home and face his uncle." Sora explained, striding over to the pool, and glancing at his reflection in it. "And as far as everyone on this world knows, so long as we're in the Pride Lands, this is where we live." Turning back to look at the girls, Sora explained, "Simba remembers travelling with me when the Heartless had destroyed this world, but the others here don't remember their world's destruction. They do know, however, that Simba knows me from before he came home, so, he and I agreed it would be better if everyone thought I was from around here."

"Makes sense," Kairi agreed, moving over to lie beside him as he crouched down to drink from the waterfall-fed spring.

Moving over to his other side, Namine asked, "So, are you going to tell us what's had you worried?" Pausing as Sora spluttered slightly, she added, "We saw you and Simba walk off, and we could feel the concern that's been gripping your heart slip away from whatever he told you."

Sora couldn't help but laugh, settling his body against the cool grass as the two girls leant against him. "I forgot you girls could do that. Gonna make surprising either of you with anything trickier." Sighing, he explained, "I was worried about losing myself to my own darkness, especially because of Roxas' return. Worried about how it'd affect the two of you, more so. I spoke to Aladdin and Alan about it too, and while Aladdin's belief that I was still me helped in some way, it was Alan and Simba that helped me see that, even if I did become a Heartless, assuming I'm not already, that I wouldn't stop being me, and thus, there wasn't anything to worry about, really."

"We could've told you that Sora," Namine stated softly, nuzzling his neck.

"I didn't abandon you the last time you became a Heartless," Kairi remarked resolutely, "If it happens again, or even if it's already happened, I'm not going to abandon you this time."

"We love you for you, so you're not getting rid of us that easily." Namine finished firmly.

"I love you both too," Sora stated. "I know I should've already known you'd feel that way, but... Well, I'm a guy. We're dumb like that." His self-depredation got a giggle from the two girls. "So, I'm promising both of you, right here, that, no matter what happens to me, if we ever get separated I will find my way back to the two of you."

"And we promise you Sora," Namine replied, "that wherever you go, we won't be far behind."

"After all," Kairi added, "You're gonna need a light or two to guide your way."

o-o-o

Riku swore to himself as he rolled under the triangular sword of one Dark Knight, only for the Guardian to swing around in an attempt to deflect a second blow that was mostly successful; the Guardian did manage to prevent the blade from striking Riku, but the force of the blow still carried over, knocking the silver-haired teen off balance. Poetically, it was that fact that allowed him to avoid the attack of a third Dark Knight, as he lost his footing and fell backwards onto the sand.

Rolling out of the way of a downward strike, Riku muttered to himself, "This isn't going so well..." The second phase of the fight had been going for what felt like half an hour, but in reality was probably only five minutes at worst, and Riku had only managed to kill two of the Dark Knight Nobodies. 'Light these things are tough. It's like he took a bunch of other Nobodies and mashed 'em together!' The Dark Knights had the power behind them of a Berserker, magical abilities similar to a Sorcerer, and the ability to teleport rapidly and defy gravity like a Sniper; and that was just the powers he'd seen so far and could place similarities with. And, to make matters worse, they seemed to be immune to darkness magic, including both Riku's Dark Firaga, and their own wave of darkness.

'There's no way I can beat them all, not on my own.' Riku had realised this fact earlier, but he was still kind of coming to terms with what that fact meant, that he was going to die if he didn't do something. 'There's no way I'm going to get enough of a break to open a Dark Corridor, and even if I did, I could never get inside and close it behind me before one or more of them followed me in. My magic does nothing to them, they pass right through my Dark Shield, and I'm running low on potions.' Riku couldn't help but sigh. 'I always knew I'd die alone.'

_'You don't have to,'_ a voice announced, in a coldly arrogant tone. _'This need not be your end.'_

'I'm going crazy,' Riku thought to himself, doing his best not to get killed while he carried on this mental conversation.

_'You have called on my power in the past,'_ the voice continued, _'Merge with me, and I can grant you the strength you need to defeat your foes.'_

Riku couldn't help but gape as he realised just whose voice it was, and he almost got his head cut off for it, were it not for a timely intervention of the speaker itself. 'GUARDIAN!' The eerie visage almost seemed to be smirking. 'What... How...'

_'All that I am, all that is left of me, is the desire- no, the need, to protect. It is my purpose. You have friends you wish to protect. This gives me purpose. Kairi... Sora... They... remind me, of people in my heart.'_ Guardian explained. _'Merge with me, and all my power is yours, to protect the ones you hold dear. Help me... fulfil my purpose.'_

'Do it,' Riku stated resolutely, 'I swore to myself that I would do whatever it took, even at the cost of my own life, to protect Sora and Kairi. If you can give me the power to do that, I will be the vessel of your purpose.'

Guardian unfolded its arms, adopting a pose identical to Riku, as it slid back and down, passing over Riku's body until the two overlapped completely, before the pair disappeared in a bright flash of light, temporarily stunning all ten remaining Dark Knights, and even forcing the observing Xurik to look away briefly. When the light faded, only Riku remained, though not the Riku that had been there before.

The white wrist guard on his left arm had changed to black, extended almost all the way up to his shoulder, and was covered on the outermost-side by what looked like tarnished bronze armour plating, highlighted, if such a term could be used, with black. His white vest and sneakers, too, were a tarnished bronze colour, while his baggy blue jeans had changed to look more beige. The only change Riku really noticed, however, was that in this form, one his mind would come to call 'Sentinel Form', he no longer held Way to the Dawn.

The guard was shaped similar to the Heartless symbol, the keychain extending from the flair at the bottom, but the top of the guard curved up, then sharply turned inwards before flairing out again into the crossguard from which the blade extended; actually, at a second glance the top half of the weapon looked much like the Nobody symbol. There, however, stopped all similarities with any symbol he recognized. The blade itself was almost as wide as the crossguard, and the inch-thick blade extended almost three feet from the hilt before reaching the teeth, which were shaped almost like a pair of claw hammer heads, one atop the other, set atop the tip of the blade. The keychain looked like a blocky, golden symbol that could have been a stylized representation of either the Heartless or Nobody symbol. A voice in his mind whispered the name of this weapon to him. _'Shadow of Earth.'_

It didn't take the Dark Knights too long to recover from the flash of light, but fortunately, this time, Riku was ready for them. Instead of dodging their attacks, Riku chose instead to parry them, swinging his Keyblade in slow, powerful forward lunges and reverse-spinning strikes, and using his armoured left arm to block any attack he couldn't parry; Riku may not have noticed the yellow-orange energy gathering around him with each swing, but Xurik did. With his attacks now staggering the Nobodies, it didn't take long before careful manoeuvring allowed Riku to group the Dark Knights up, instead of them surrounding him, so, leaping into the air, and instinctively gathering all the gathered energy along Shadow of Earth, Riku slammed his Keyblade into the sand, the shockwave dazing all ten Nobodies.

Leaping backwards about two feet, Riku quickly scanned the stunned enemies, before tossing Shadow of Earth into the air. In a flash of light lasting half a heartbeat, the Keyblade tripled, if not quadrupled in side, the blade now almost as wide as Riku's arm was long. Leaping into the air slightly, Riku caught the blade with his right arm, handle pointed towards the gathered Nobodies. The teeth segments of the weapon began spinning in opposite directions, and the flair on the bottom of the guard broke open, before the guard began rotating around at high speed as well, pale yellow energy gathering at the new base of the hilt, before firing out and striking the amassed enemies in a tremendous explosion. Then, mere seconds later, Riku fired a second blast, finishing off the weakened Nobodies before, as his weapon returned to normal, turning his sights on Xurik.

The shocked Nobody couldn't help but gape, stammering, "How... How did you do that?"

"You know what?" Riku replied, "I don't know. Care to bet whether I've got another new trick especially for you?" Xurik, it turned out, did not, vanishing into a Dark Corridor without so much as a parting retort. Flashing back into his normal form, Riku sent a parting 'thank you' to the tired symbiote, before taking in the damage done to the island and remarking to himself, "Guess I better see what I can do to fix this..."

o-o-o

"So girls, we ready to leave?"

Kairi sent a longing look towards the cool water, asking, "We can come back another time right?"

Sora just nuzzled her cheek, assuring her, "Of course we can Kai. Once things settle down, I'd love to vacation here with my ladies for longer than one night."

Both girls looked pleased at that thought, though it was Namine who asked, "So, we have a destination in mind?"

Sora nodded solemnly. "Castle Oblivion. It's just... a feeling of mine. There's something important there." Shrugging slightly, he added, "We can't solve the Hades problem until we know where he is, so I figure we solve the Roxas problem first."

"Oh, but I'm right here hero," a disembodied voice announced, moments before there was a burst of blue flame, which died out quickly to reveal a skeletal lion, surrounded in blue flame, glaring balefully at Sora.

"Hades!" Sora hissed, summoning Oblivion to his teeth and grabbing Twilight Thorn with his tail. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," Hades grinned, a decidedly creepy look on a skeletal form. "You see, I've gotten quite bored waiting for you, so I've decided it's time for you and me to square off again."

"Girls, get out of here," Sora barked roughly, the two lionesses cowering behind him.

"Oh cool your jets kitty cat," Hades sneered, "I don't want to fight you _here_. Oh, sure, you can't use half of your powers like this, while me, I can still kill you in an instant." As if to prove his point, cages of blue flame erupted into life around both Kairi and Namine. "But you know me, if nothing else, I like to give the hero a sporting chance; makes gloating at their eventual loss all the sweeter, you know. I've got a new arena all lined up, just waiting for the debut match between you and I."

"Name the time and place, Hades." Sora spat. "You're right, it's past time you were dealt with."

The cages of fire shrunk slightly, eliciting frightened yelps from both girls. "Watch the attitude, champ, or your lady friends there might be getting a nasty tan," Hades warned, narrowing his eye sockets. "Now, see, I _could_ just tell you where I'll be waiting, but where's the fun in that, so we're gonna make a little game of it." As Sora opened his mouth to retort, Hades cut him off with, "And you _will_ be playing my game, Keybrat, once you hear the stakes. You see, every day it takes you to find me and the battlefield I've chosen-" Hades paused for dramatic effect "-I destroy a world. That means, sport, that every day it takes you to find me, I get a thousand or so more soldiers, and you add a thousand or so new lives to your conscience."

"That's it? 'Come and find me or I kill tonnes of people'?" Sora hollered. "That's not sporting; that's sadistic."

"Can't it be both?" Hades chuckled darkly. "You're right, of course. If I want to make things sporting, I need to leave you a clue then don't I?" The fired around him building up, Hades' form started to fade as he recited his clue. "Hidden in your heart is the answer, a place itfs been before but you've never set foot on. The place it all began, and the place it all almost ended. Six entered, three left, two as one. The crossroads of life and death, light and dark, existence and nothing." His form faded entirely, the flames died out, Hades' disembodied voice leaving one last remark, "Tick tock tick tock. Don't keep me waiting now champ."

The flames of their cages burning out, Kairi and Namine padded up to Sora's side for reassurance and comfort, the strictly younger sister asking, "What are we going to do now Sora?"

"The only thing we can do," Sora snarled, banishing his Keyblades. "We find Hades, and we sent him back to Hell!"

* * *

Author's Notes

I was wondering for a while what to call this chapter, until I realized that, with half of it being centred around the Pride Lands, there was only one choice.


	22. Sunset Horizons

- Shades of Grey -

Chapter 21 - Sunset Horizons

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

_

* * *

Light is only light because of darkness' existence. I believe that in intersection of light and darkness lies the balance of the world. But in the current day, darkness has been removed too much and the balance is off. Currently, the order of light must be destroyed, the world must be reorganized to allow darkness to rise._

_When I was a boy, at the edge of a world I saw in a dream, I arrived at a world that no one else had ever seen. I opened the door to Kingdom Hearts, creating a new world, with light and darkness in balance. With this new knowledge, a new objective for me was born, but what I was left with was this old body. The next thing to do was to look for a new vessel._

_The heart of pure light, Ventus. The heart of pure darkness, Vanitas. If these two grow, one day they will intersect to complete the X-Blade._

_Vanitas' darkness eats away at Ventus. There is only one place to raise Ventus on the side of light, and that is under the care of Eraqus, who thinks only light is the way._

_With Terra's kindness, he also seeks power. His attachment to power will eventually lead his heart towards darkness. My vessel is chosen._

_Strong darkness makes light stronger, strong light makes darkness stronger. With this, everything connects, and the legend shall return._

Mickey paced up and down Yen Sid's small study, his soft footfalls the only sound in the room for many moments. Finally though, the mouse king could hold his thoughts in no longer, asking in a voice that was entirely too calm, "Are you telling me that Xehanort, the same Xehanort who overthrew Ansem the Wise, the Xehanort who began mass-replicating Heartless, the Xehanort who became Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, and Xemnas, was Terra all along?"

"His body at least, old friend," Yen Sid replied sadly, "As for his heart, I know not."

Bristling with anger, Mickey shouted, "You've known all this time; why did you never tell me?"

"Would it have changed anything?" Yen Sid asked smoothly. "Ansem and Xemnas were still great threats to all worlds, threats that needed to be stopped."

"Of course it would have changed something! I could have saved him!"

"Could you now?" Yen Sid replied tonelessly. "And how, pray tell, would you have done that? How would you have saved someone who didn't want to be saved?"

Mickey paused, tilting his head slightly to one side as he asked, "Master Yen Sid, are you suggesting that Terra actually _wanted_ to be possessed?"

The old wizard just shook his head, slowly and sadly. "No, I am not. There may have been some remnant of Terra that could have been saved; however, I am suggesting that Xehanort himself would not want that. There was, and still is, no way of knowing how much of the younger Xehanort was Terra, who may have desired freedom, and how much of it was the former Master Xehanort, who wished for everything but."

Tail swishing from side to side, Mickey remarked somewhat defensively, "If you had only given me the chance-"

"You would be dead now, or worse." Yen Sid cut him off. "Aqua, an experienced, qualified Keyblade Master, and life-long friend of Terra, tried everything in her power to save her friend from his fate, and she failed. Do you honestly believe that a Keyblade apprentice, even one as skilled and powerful in the light as you, could succeed where she failed?"

Mickey sighed, sitting heavily in the leather chair that materialised behind him automatically. "Well what would you have me do?"

Smiling wistfully, Yen Sid remarked, "You remind me a lot of my old friend Eraqus. You, like Eraqus, believe that the Light is everything. That it is not the journey, but the destination. That it is not the question, but the answer. That it is, and always was." Pausing a moment, he continued, "As you well know, I do not hold to that view; neither did Xehanort. And like Xehanort and Eraqus before, it was that difference in viewpoints that drove us apart."

Gathering his thoughts as Mickey nodded slowly, Yen Sid stated, "Xehanort and I both believe that Light and Darkness are symbiotic, that one cannot exist without the other; that Light and Darkness must be balanced. However, unlike Xehanort, I do not believe that Light and Darkness must be _equal_ for there to be a balance between the two."

Mickey could feel the surprise come across his face at that remark. "What do you mean Master?"

"Darkness is a part of all hearts; it has existed as long, if not longer, than life itself. When all the worlds were one, there was an imbalance between Light and Darkness that tore them asunder, and life continued on, forging a new balance. A balance that Xehanort threw off, in his belief that Light and Darkness must be equal. He knew that the worlds as they are could fit his view; after all, it is not the nature of humans to be perfectly balanced between Light and Darkness. He knew that in order to make his perfect world, he would first have to destroy what was."

"So that's why he wanted Kingdom Hearts?" Mickey asked rhetorically, realisation dawning, "If he could control the heart of all worlds, he could remake all of them at once. And when he became both a Heartless and a Nobody, his target never changed; just his end goal for what he would do when he got it."

Yen Sid nodded solemnly. "Light and Darkness must both exist; without one, I truly believe the other could not be. The balance must be restored. To do that, the Light needs people like you, who will fight to their last breath to protect it, but it also needs people like Sora and Riku, those who can fight the Darkness on its own terms. What I would have you do is to find a way to reconcile that with your own beliefs, because, believe me when I tell you, if you cannot, dark times are ahead."

There was a long moment of sombre silence, before Mickey nodded once, replying, "I will take your words to heart Master Yen Sid. I have just one final question: where is Aqua?"

Yen Sid just smiled sadly. "She is where she has been for the past decade, trapped in the Realm of Darkness. And only the one who can open the Door to Light can bring her back."

o-o-o

"Sora?" Namine asked carefully, licking her lips nervously, "What are we going to do?"

As much as they hated to admit it, Kairi and Namine both were worried about Sora, who hadn't said a word since they'd teleported back onto the Gummi ship. He had simply sat down in the captain's chair, plotted a course somewhere, and set the ship on autopilot. Since then, he had just been sitting there silently, and given the waves of darkness both girls could feel rolling off his heart, they felt it was only their presence that kept him from giving in to the darkness completely.

"Sora?" Kairi approached him slowly, placing one hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"I can't find it..." Had they not been so close, and had the room not been so quiet, the girls would never have heard Sora's soft remark. Looking up to see a pair of confused female faces, he explained, "Hades said that the answer was 'hidden in my heart', and that it was somewhere my heart had been before, but that I had never been to."

Namine remained silent, knowing, from having searched Roxas' memory to find the lost fragments of Sora's, that no such memory existed, so it was Kairi who asked, "No luck?"

Sora shook his head. "Wherever the memories are in my heart, they must be unlinked; or, at least, unlinked from anything Roxas or I remember."

"So what do we do now Sora?" Namine asked, turning briefly to glance out the windscreen. "Where are we headed?"

"Hades said that the location was 'the crossroads between light and dark', which would suggest to me that it's caught between the Realms of Light and Darkness." Sora explained, "There are two worlds I know of that are very similar to that description - Twilight Town, and Castle Oblivion - though neither fit the rest of the clues, so I'm hoping that, wherever this world is, it's close to them." Grimacing slightly, he added, "I had better be right, because it's going to take at least eighteen hours to reach that part of the Void, so if I'm wrong..."

"We'll find him Sora," Kairi said reassuringly, a gentle smile on her face. "But how will we find which world he's on? From what I've seen of the Gummi ship's navigation system, you can't visit a world it doesn't know about."

Sora nodded. "That's why I need to go deeper." He took a deep breath, turning towards the blonde girl and stating, "Namine, I need you to help me. I need you to send me deep into my heart."

"No Sora, I... I can't," Namine replying, shaking slightly in fright, "The last time I tried this, you lost a year of your life. If I send you deeper, you could get lost and never find your way back to us!"

"Last time you did this, my memories were scattered, and the way back was lost." Sora spoke softly, taking Kairi's hand in one of his, turning to the redhead as he continued, "This time, my way back is sitting right here beside me." Holding his other hand out for Namine, as Kairi settled herself into the seat next to his, he finished, "Namine, I need you to do this for me. Trust in yourself to send me along the path, and trust in Kairi to bring me back."

Exhaling slowly, Namine nodded, accepting the offered hand, and sitting down on his other side. As the three of them closed their eyes, Namine focused on how she sent Sora into his heart last time, relying on Kairi to be the one to focus on drawing him out again. If asked later, Namine would say she couldn't remember what the words were that she intoned, only that they worked, Sora slumping backwards into his chair, though the grip he had on the two girls hands never slackened.

_Some strange brown-haired man, in a weird outfit, kneeling down to show Riku something. 'Hey Riku, hurry up, we'll miss the tide!'  
A pretty blue-haired girl, smiling at me. Telling me I need to protect Riku. Why would I need to do that? Riku's unbeatable.  
Laying on the sand, watching the stars, Riku beside me, asking if it's time to go home. Riku asking what's wrong, as tears start to fall from my eyes. Chest hurting. Someone's sad? I'm connected to everything, Riku says. Hear them with my heart? 'Okay, I'll try. ...? Can you hear my voice?'  
A blue platform. A familiar voice, saying our hearts have a part that's not enough, born at the same time. It needs to go to sleep it says. 'Are you sad?'  
Riku's expectant face. Three stars twinkling brighter than others. 'I think I reached it.'_

Sora's eyes snapped open suddenly, shocking the girls, whose concentration is instantly broken. Slightly panicked that she's done something wrong, Namine asks hurriedly, "What is it? Sora, what's wrong?"

The teen merely shakes his head, replying, "Send me back." Taking a deep breath again as his eyes slide shut, he remarks, "I think I've found where that memory comes from."

o-o-o

The bridge to the paopu tree islet was half destroyed. The seaside shack was cut almost in two, and the stair inside leading to the bridge were held up, it seemed, by dust and prayer. The fight had managed to avoid damaging the dock, but much of the beach between the bridge and dock was worn away to bare rock. As for the tree house, while the fight itself had never reached that far up the beach, the shockwaves to the island itself had caused incalculable instability. And all of that was just the damage the fight did to _this_ side of the play island.

Riku knew that, if he did nothing, their island would never return to how things were; while the bridge and shack could be repaired, too much stress would cause the tree to collapse, which rendered almost all of this side of the island unsafe. Taking in the damage with a heavy heart, he mused aloud, "No doubt if Sora was here, he'd just magic everything right again. But then, if it'd been Sora here instead of me, things would never have gotten this bad." There was only one thing Riku could see that he could do to fix things.

Riku remembered Master Yen Sid saying that some Keyblade Masters chose to bind themselves to the heart of their homeland, which allowed them to 'reshape their world to one more of their liking'. Logically, then, if Riku were to bind himself to the heart of Destiny Islands, then he would be able to reshape _this_ world, to set things right again.

He just hoped that Destiny Islands would accept him.

The entrance to the Secret Place was lower than Riku remembered, forcing him to crawl on his hands and knees to make it inside. The cave itself, however, was much as he remembered it, even though he hadn't been here in years. One change he did notice, however, was that the drawings Sora and Kairi had done years ago of each other had been changed, to show them offering each other a star. Another thing out of place he found was that, partially buried near that drawing, were wrapping paper scraps, a box containing the leaves and stalk of a paopu fruit, and one of the hairclips Kairi had taken to wearing in the past few months; he knew because he'd been there when she'd talked Sora into buying them for her.

Backing away slowly, Riku mused to himself, "You know what? I don't wanna know." Putting his friends out of his mind, at least for now, Riku turned his attention towards the featureless wooden door at the back of the cave. The last time that door had opened, the Heartless had come to the Islands, tearing them asunder, and now, Riku was going to risk opening the door once more.

"Destiny Islands," Riku spoke aloud, feeling slightly foolish as he did so. "I know I have caused you great harm. I brought ruin here almost two years ago when the Heartless were drawn to the darkness growing in my heart, and I brought more destruction here a mere hour ago, when Xurik brought his Nobodies here for me, but... I'm trying." He took a deep breath, sighing slowly, adding, "I'm trying to set things right. I'm trying to protect everyone."

He sighed again, feeling no less foolish speaking to an empty cave than he did when he started, but at least he felt better getting this off his chest. "I thought I could protect everyone alone, but... That fight earlier proved to me that I couldn't, and the Guardian showed me that I didn't have to, that there was no shame in receiving help in a time of need. Well, I need help now. The only thing that has ever meant as much to Sora as his friends, is his home, and returning to it to be with those close to his heart." Closing his eyes, Riku added, "Destiny Islands, I pledge myself to your protection. All I ask in return, is that you grant me the strength to protect Sora, Kairi, and Namine, and to bring them home."

Riku felt his Keyblade summon itself to his hand, felt his arm lifting all on its own to point the tip of his Keyblade at the featureless door before him. Only, when he opened his eyes, the door was not so featureless; a simple golden keyhole, a little larger than his Keyblade was wide, adorned the very centre of it. With a simple "Thank you Destiny Islands" Riku stepped forward, inserting Way to the Dawn into the Keyhole, before the entire area was awash in a blinding light.

o-o-o

When Sora opened his eyes again, he found himself in the familiar landscape he recognised as the depth of his heart. Glancing around, he noticed the ornate door behind him, and the glowing white thread extending from that door and wrapping around his waist; he dare not look down, afraid of what it would mean should he find Aros reflected in the stain glass pattern, but not Roxas. The darkness wasn't as all-encroaching as it had been the last time he'd been here though, which he took as a good sign.

Strolling slowly around the edge of the platform, Sora kept his gaze on the darkness around him, focusing on the memory of calling out to a sad voice that he had helped find peace, a voice he could not place a name to. He stopped when, on the edge of his vision, he spotted another platform, barely visible, pulsing slowly in the distance. "No stairs," Sora noted softly, "Guess that platform is completely separate from mine. Only one way there it seems." Keeping the platform in his sight, Sora remembered back to Neverland, to how it felt to truly fly, hoping that here, in this dominion, it was possible.

As he felt his feet leave the ground, he knew his hope was true. Still, he would keep one hand on his 'safety line', just in case. Taking a deep breath, Sora slowly floated towards the far platform.

_The wizened old master. A ring of dark creatures, weaving back and forth around him. Exhaustion, dragging his limbs down. 'Master, I can't do this.' The creatures surging, then darkness._

Sora grit his teeth, feeling the phantom claws of remembered Neoshadows slicing his skin. Sora did not recognize that man, but the person whose memory that was clearly did. More questions surfaced, so Sora pushed on.

_Pain. Something missing; incomplete. Dying. The sound of the waves gentle lapping against the sand. A voice, the first words of a boy that has never spoken, newly born, offering to help him be complete, until he could stand on his own. Acceptance. Life._

Sora's heartbeat sped up, and he could almost feel the world around him thrumming in time to match. An incomplete heart? How was that possible? The platform was closer now, close enough to make out the green tint.

_ A new home. Friends, an older brother, a cute older girl, a new guardian. No real memories from the time before save the face of the old master. Training with older brother's wooden Keyblade. Reassurance, belonging. Family._

That girl... That blue haired girl from the memory. Sora recognized her. Hera called her 'Aqua'. Told Kairi she'd met her, back on Radiant Garden, some ten plus years ago. The memories in his heart, the ones not his own, were almost as old as he was. Still, he drew ever closer to the other platform.

_ Aqua and brother's test. Something wrong, the test attacks him. Fighting alongside Aqua and brother, before they must fight each other. Aqua passed, brother failed; why? A strange masked boy, taunting him. Brother's leaving? He can't leave, must go after him. Aqua shouting, telling him to stay, him ignoring her as he heads off after brother._

The masked boy, something about him felt familiar, though Sora couldn't work out why. The platform's closer now, close enough to see a picture on the top, but not close enough to make out any details. The memory he's looking for must be further ahead. He pushed on.

_ Many worlds, and many people. Always looking for brother, darkness and dark creatures dogging his way. Unversed. The masked boy again, taunting him, saying that brother has changed. The mouse, helping him fight the masked boy. The garden of light, him and Aqua and brother reunited, only for brother to leave again after a fight with Aqua. Return home? No, he can't do that; brother's still out there somewhere._

Sora can see the platform more clearly now, can see the image on it of a single figure at rest. The light is still too dim though, so he can't make out the figure's features, but he knows he's seen them somewhere before. More memories come as he draws closer still.

_ More worlds, and the people in them. The old wizard, the mouse's master. The wizened old master again, full of darkness, telling him he has to reclaim his lost darkness. X-Blade? The Bringer of Death? Master Eraqus knew? Master Eraqus tried to keep him from leaving, from finding out what he was, what this dark old man wanted to use him for._

Sora's almost on the green platform now. He should be able to make out the image, but the darkness is too thick, and the light inside it has dimmed for now. He's almost there, he realises; almost to the truth of the matter, almost found where he needs to be. He must go further, find that memory.

_ Master Eraqus, telling him how dangerous he is, how me must be sealed for everyone's safety. Brother, arriving to help him, being told he must be sealed too if he cannot understand the true heart. Brother, sending him through a portal to a beach somewhere. The masked boy again, telling him they must become one, telling him Aqua and brother will die if he does not come to the Graveyard-_

Sora's eyes snapped open, and for the briefest of seconds, he saw the platform he'd been drifting towards, lit up from inside, and saw the figure on it, so like Roxas, only not. Then, half a heartbeat later, all he saw was the Gummi ship, before his view was filled by the faces of his loves, asking him if he was alright.

Smiling, Sora carefully climbed out of the chair, his joints stiff from sitting motionless for so long. "I'm alright girls, really," he tries to reassure them, but, while they don't look convinced, they accept it for now.

"How did it go?" Namine asks. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

The Keyblade Master nods. "Yeah, I found it. Hades is in the Keyblade Graveyard, and I know exactly where that is." Clenching his left hand, he added, "It's time to finish things once and for all, and nothing can stop me this time."

o-o-o

Maleficent opened her eyes slowly, doing her best to ignore the dull ache thumping in the back of her head, as she tried to work out where she was. Her eyes wouldn't focus properly, but the walls were white; or was it the ceiling? Her arms and legs were secured to something, something strong, and she felt lethargic, like something was missing...

She remembered now. That disloyal boy Xurik had returned to her, informing her that the impudent wretch Roxas had turned on her, declared that he didn't work for her, and that her dominion was HIS castle, and if she wished to remain in it, she had best mind her own business. The insolent upstart had to learn his place, but he had left already, gone to Castle Oblivion, the Organizations secondary base, as she learned from the reports. He had yet to return.

Normally, she would have sent that fool Pete to find the boy and bring him back, but he was gone already, sent on another errand, and told not to return until he had finished it. The others did not know where he had been sent; she could not trust any of them. She'd had to go herself, heading to Castle Oblivion and tracking the boy down. When she got here, however, she'd not gone too far in when she felt inexplicably weak, passing out, only to wake up here.

Able to focus again, she cast her eyes around the room, taking in as much as her limited range of vision allowed. Judging by the pattern on the wall opposite (she was sure of it now) she was still in Castle Oblivion, in one of the many laboratories she had read about. Directly opposite her, unconscious and attached to some bizarre contraption that Seymour mayhaps understand, was the very insolent boy she had come here to find, Roxas.

"Ah, finally awake are we my dear?" A rich baritone voice asked from behind her. "Good, I was beginning to wonder if I would have to commence with you still asleep."

The dark witch's eyes widened; she knew that voice. "You?" She hissed, "How are you here? You are supposed to be dead!"

"And yet, that had never stopped you, has it Maleficent?" The voice replied, an amused tone to it. "I am afraid, however, that your trusty raven will not find your remains this time."

Thrashing against the chains that bound her, Maleficent growled, "When I get free-"

She was cut off by the voice's rich laughter. "My dear, do you honestly believe you are going to get free?" The figure strode around from behind her to where she could look upon him, glaring balefully into his golden eyes. "You know, I have done much research over the years, into the nature of power, and how one acquires it; after all, so many people dedicate their lives to acquiring more. Would you like to know what I've learnt?"

Maleficent gave him a baleful glare. "Do I have much choice?"

The figure smiled, shaking his head slowly. "Power is not found in some ancient ritual, or forgotten tome. It's not something one can _find_, it's something you _are_. I believed that dark magic was the answer myself, in my earlier days, but if one can lose their power to something as simple as a few eldritch chains, or the loss of a single fight, well, then you never really had any power to begin with, did you? Would you like to know what does equal power?" He paused, as if for dramatic effect. "Power. Power equals power; simple, isn't it? Ah, but the _type_ of power? That does not matter as much as one would think. Right now, power takes the form of an old idiom: knowledge. Knowing all agents in play, how best to use them, and predicting how they will act."

At Maleficent's stunned look he laughed. "I have known your plans before you did. Capturing Namine in the hopes of using her to turn Sora completely to the darkness? Did you actually believe that would work? Still, you should feel honoured, Maleficent."

"And why is that?" The dark witch asked.

The man smirked. "Because a pawn so rarely has a chance to play at queen. However, to the king, a queen is no less expendable than the pawn whose head wears the crown, and I find I no longer have a need for a queen; I need a knight instead. I do thank you for seeing to ensuring I have the body my knight needs."

"Roxas?" Maleficent couldn't keep the curiosity from her voice. "You went through all of this for Roxas?" The concept alone boggled her mind.

The figure laughed again. "Of course not my dear, I merely needed a tie to Sora. However, the blank slate you have provided for me in Roxas is simply... magnificent, for my plans. However, my knight needs one more thing to become complete, and it is here you may find yourself useful once more."

"And what makes you think I would wish to be useful to you?"

"You say that like you have a choice." The voice had lost all traces of humour. "To become complete, my knight requires a heart of darkness." A look of horror began to bloom on Maleficent's face. "Victory requires sacrifice. Your sacrifice, in particular. But do not fret my dear, you may yet see your world of darkness. If your heart survives long enough to see it."

For all the evils she had both witnessed and carried out, Maleficent could not hold back the scream.

o-o-o

Looking up from the navigational screen, Namine announced, "Alright, we're almost there. Dropping out of Hyperdrive now and-" Her eyes bugged out of her head slightly. "Light protect us..." Assembled between them and the planet was the largest flotilla of Heartless ships Sora had seen since he'd had to punch through to Hollow Bastion in order to seal the Keyhole to the Realm of Darkness; possibly larger still than the army that had protected The End of the World and the Door to Darkness therein.

"S-Sora, what do we do?" Kairi asked, quite afraid.

Gritting his teeth, Sora asked, "Do you girls remember that crash course I gave you in dog-fighting?" The two just stared at him fearfully, realising that they were soon to go into a battle unlike any they'd faced before. "Kairi, Namine, pay close attention! You each control the guns on your side of the ship; the basic guns have no cooldown or ammunition to worry about, so just aim at the thing you want to die and pull the trigger. There are lasers as well, these lock on and fire automatically, so you don't need to worry about them; just remember they don't fire at all times. You've each got a close range weapon that'll instantly scuttle anything that gets too close, but takes a while to charge up between hits; and, if they're that close, we've got bigger problems, so just keep it as a last resort."

"Sora, are you sure about this?"

Relaxing his grip on the controls slightly, Sora asked simply, "Do you trust me?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation in either of the simultaneous replies, and, strangely, both girls felt more at ease after confirming their faith in him.

He continued the thought regardless. "Then trust in yourselves. Trust that we will make it out of here okay." He smiled slightly, glancing between his ladies, "I promised you that we would all be able to settle down together when this was over, and I always keep my promises."

"We know you do Sora," the girls replied as one, taking up their controls as the auto-targeting system came online, searching for a lock on the ships drawing closer to them.

"Then let's get this show on the road." Flicking a few switched before him, Sora took the controls once more. "Shields online, weapons online, thrusters at fifty percent capacity. Let's go!"

The _Highwind_ took off like a shot out of a gun, flying un-erringly towards the swarm amassed against them, and almost immediately, the laser systems began firing, the computer target locking now within range. Moments later, the cannon batteries on either side roared into life, the fiery red shots not quite as accurate as the computer targeted ones, but the girls quickly learnt how to correct their aim for movement.

Heartless fighters swarmed towards them from the carrier ships, looking nothing so much like a random mishmash of Gummi blocks; at times, Sora wondered how they even had the capability of moving through the Void under their own power. Many of them were even without weapon systems, simply designed to suicide into approaching ships. What the lasers and cannons couldn't shoot out of the air, Sora deftly wove around, but the initial wave of fighters was not Sora's greatest concern; it was the three rings of carrier ships between him and the world below, and the no doubt legion of fighters and traps waiting between.

Flying between two of the carrier ships, Sora wasn't entirely surprised when they opened fire; his careful manoeuvring, combined with the wild firing pattern, ensured that the enemy ships took a hit at least as often as the _Highwind_ did, if not more so. Still... "Shields down to seventy percent." 'Damn,' Sora growled to himself, 'These ships are stronger than they used to be. At least I know we're definitely in the right place!'

Sure enough, between the two rings of carriers were stationary gunships, cannons already aimed and primed. Sora did the only thing he could. "Thrusters to sixty percent!" The _Highwind_ accelerated, Sora hoping he could get the ship ahead of the firing patterns of the ships set to destroy him, and fortunately, due to the unexpected behaviour, coupled with some good shooting on the girls' part, they managed to get through without taking too many hits. Still, the shields had dropped a further ten percent.

Rather than trying to pass between the next row of ship, Sora aimed directly for a weakness he had noticed in the ship's design: a blind spot in the ship's firing pattern, allowing them to slip through the second ring unscathed. Well, maybe there was the occasional bump against the carrier ship, but it was still a lot better than a cannon blast, so Sora felt confident going into the final ring. Right up until he noticed that the final ring of carrier ships had turned, such that their cannons were aimed straight at him. And the fighters were still pouring in. "Sora, punch it!"

"Thrusters at eighty percent!" The /Highwind/ took off again, but the sheer mass of enemies assembled meant the guns had to focus exclusively on the path directly before them, lest they crash into a suicide ship. There were no gunners in this ring, save for the massive, wildly fired shots from the carriers at the far end; often, those blasts wiped out a whole arc of suicide ships, but, despite being clear those arcs weren't particularly safe; after all, if a cannon hit there before, what's to say it wouldn't do it again. Even with the guns pointed straight forward, the crush of ships was too thick to make the ride anything but bumpy. "Shields down to twenty-five percent!"

"Sora, we're getting killed out here!" If asked later, Sora would never have been able to answer which one of his girls had spoken. "Get us on the ground, quick!"

"That part will happen pretty definitely," Sora shot back, doing his best to avoid as much shrapnel and jetsam as possible, "The trick is to be in enough of one piece to walk away from it. This is the final leg girls! Thrusters to full power!" Rocketing towards, and past, the nearest carrier ship, Sora was unprepared for the ship to self-detonate, the explosive force red-lining all of their systems. "Shit, shields and thrusters are both offline; I'm gonna have to glide her in. Hold onto something girls, this is gonna be a rough landing!"

Trailing smoke and flaked Gummi blocks, the /Highwind/ plummeted towards the world below.

* * *

Author's Notes

I meant to have this up a few days ago, but I got side tracked.

Well, this particular arc of the story is almost over. It is my goal to get everything finished prior to the Australian release date for _Birth By Sleep_, because once that's out I doubt I'm going to be doing much writing until I'm finished with it. That means I have, now, 8 days left to meet my deadline.

Wish me luck, I'll need it


	23. Victory or Oblivion

- Shades of Grey -

Chapter 22 - Victory or Oblivion

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story._

* * *

Sora, you lazy bum. I knew that I'd find you snoozing down here._

_So, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft. You're just as lazy as he is!_

_All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end._

_I've been to see him... He looks a lot like you._

_Sora, the rest is up to you... And Roxas- I doubt you can hear me-but...I am sorry._

_Do not forget-when I've destroyed them all, this castle shall be mine!_

_If light and darkness are eternal, then surely we nothings must be the same... Eternal!_

Groaning in pain, Sora held his forehead in one hand, dismissing the honeycomb barrier with the other as he mused to himself, 'Guess your life really _does_ flash before your eyes...' "That's the second Gummi ship crash I've been in," He remarked aloud, "Guess I'm lucky I didn't go through the windshield this time. Well, any landing you can walk away from..." Crouching down to check on the girls, he asked, "Kairi, Namine, are you two okay?"

Unfurling from the foetal position they'd adopted for the crash, the two sisters climbed up to a sitting position slowly, Namine remarking, "Next time, I'll drive."

Giving the blonde girl an amused look, Sora replied, "Nam, you've never flown a Gummi ship before."

"Well she sure couldn't do worse than you," Kairi retorted, sticking her tongue out at him.

Glancing around at the damaged cockpit, and occasional sparking console, Namine asked nervously, "Is the ship going to be able to take off again?"

Helping the girls to their feet, Sora nodded reassuringly. "Sure. The auto-repair function's already kicked in, and the hull wasn't breeched, so it'll be fine. I mean, depending on how long this fight takes, we may need to do a few repairs on the weapons systems if we don't want too much trouble getting past the armada up there, but so long as we have thrusters and shields we'll be fine, and both of those are still in working order." Laughing slightly, he added, "The advantage of Gummi ships is that the maintenance is remarkably easy."

The three of them took a moment to get themselves together again, before realising that they were still on a timer; one that was surely nearly running out. Opening the hatch to the world outside, they noticed that they'd managed to crash land on one of the many mesas in the ruddy-red desert that seemed to make up most of, if not all of this world. Casting his eyes around the desert, Sora spotted what appeared to be a cross marked through the absence of whatever filled the rest of the area; as this world was known as the Keyblade Graveyard, he assumed that it was made of Keyblades, though he couldn't see them clearly at this distance. "There," he remarked, pointing with one hand, "That's our destination."

"How are we gonna get there Sora?" Namine asked, looking down over the edge of the cliff, "There doesn't appear to be a way down."

"More importantly," Kairi added, "How are we going to get there on time? According to my watch, we only have about ten minutes before Hades' deadline."

Walking to the edge of the cliff before turning to face both girls, Sora gave them a cheeky grin, the one that seemed to say 'I shouldn't be doing what I'm going to do' before asking them, "Do you trust me?"

Giving each other a meaningful glance, Kairi and Namine rolled their eyes, the redhead remarking, "After that _last_ stunt you pulled after asking that the answer _should_ be no, but..." Sighing, the two girls responded together, "Yes Sora, we do."

Nodding once, a smile on his face, Sora turned back to look over the cliff, offering his hands to the girls on either side. "Then take my hands and don't let go."

o-o-o

The atmosphere in Yen Sid's Study was fairly tense, with King Mickey Mouse sitting on one side of the desk in contemplative silence, doing his best to reconcile the old wizard's viewpoint with his own, while across from him, the old wizard himself sat, flipping through the enchanted tome before him, trying to find the solution to his latest dilemma. Both were irrevocably broken from their contemplations when the door to the study burst inward, a voice crying out, "Master Yen Sid, I need your help to- Oh, you have company." Standing there in the doorway, doing his best to hide how awkward the situation had become, was Riku, still missing his black cloak.

"Hello Riku," Mickey stated amicably, shifting in his seat so he could look at the young Keyblade wielder. "You're looking well. So what brings you here?"

Riku noticed that Mickey seemed to be deliberately not standing from his seat, as would be polite, as if stating silently 'Regardless of why you're here I'm not leaving'. "I am well, thank you," Riku replied, in the same 'I don't know how to really deal with you' tone. "I just came to Master Yen Sid for a little assistance with a task of mine. You?"

"Reconciling differences with an old friend," Mickey replied smoothly, noting to himself that technically he wasn't actually lying; it may not have been the purpose of his visit, but he certainly did what he said.

Sighing in defeat as he realised there was no getting rid of the mouse king, Riku remarked, "This is the part where, normally, I'd say I'd come back later, but... It's important." Giving Mickey a significant glance, he added, "I need you to find Sora for me. You're the only person I know of with enough magical strength to find him. I believe he's in serious trouble."

The old wizard calmly rose from his chair, simply replying, "I will do what I can," before moving into the adjacent room to concentrate.

'Weird,' Riku mused to himself, 'Most people would ask why I thought that...' Not three seconds after that thought had passed through Riku's mouth, Mickey asked that exact question, and Riku found he didn't really have a satisfactory answer; he merely placed a hand over his heart and replied, "I just know, in here."

The room fell into an uncomfortable silence, and time seemed to slow to a crawl, as if one grain of sand fell through the hourglass at a time. Finally, Mickey could hold the peace no longer, asking, "What did you encounter that made you think he was in any danger? Is it Hades? Maleficent?"

"I don't know, I honestly can't explain it," Riku remarked, frustrated both in Mickey, and himself for not having an explanation, "Maybe it's his connection to me, calling for help; maybe it's my connection to him, and my promise to protect him; maybe I'm just imagining things and he's perfectly fine, I don't know. All I know is that I've felt like this before. When Sora went off the grid for three months. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I don't believe in coincidence."

"Nor do I," Yen Sid remarked, announcing his presence as he strode back into the room, "Which is why I believe young Master Riku is correct. I could not ascertain why Sora may be in trouble, but I do believe that he _is_, purely based on the 'where'."

Giving the aged wizard a curious look, Mickey asked, "Why do you say that Master? You're not usually one for hunches."

Harrumphing as he sat back down in his high-back leather chair, Yen Sid replied, "Because I can think of no benign reason for Sora to go to the Keyblade Graveyard."

Ignoring Mickey's shocked outcry, Riku asked hurriedly, "Where is it? Which world is the Graveyard nearest?"

"You won't get there in time Riku," Mickey cut in before Yen Sid could reply, "If Sora's in danger right now, than no amount of Dark Corridors or Gummi Ships could get you there in time to help him. But I have a way we can get there almost instantly."

Riku raised one eyebrow. "We?"

"Yes, we. I'm going with you." His tone brokered no argument. "If you want to help Sora, I'm coming along. I may be unsure how entirely I feel about Sora right now, but if something is a threat to him, it is a threat to all of us and must be stopped."

"Alright then, fine." Even if he hadn't made such a good point, Riku would have agreed to anything at that point to get the help he needed. "So how are we getting there?"

Ignoring the original question, Mickey smirked slightly out one side of his face, asking, "How do you think I got around before the Gummi Ship was invented?" Producing his old Star Fragment from one pocket, he warned, "Just stay close. This could be a rough ride."

o-o-o

Her boyfriend was crazy; when he had not only stepped off the edge of the mesa, but _leapt_ off, she had come to accept this as cold, hard fact. But then, hadn't she read somewhere that life was just as, if not more crazy, and that to survive it whole and sane, you needed to introduce a little madness to your day. 'Maybe I'm a bit crazy too,' Kairi mused to herself, 'After all, I followed him.' Even now, she still held Sora's hand, as Namine did on his other side.

At any other time, in any other way, the wind whipping through her hair at these speeds would have been terrifying. Any other person, had they leapt off that same cliff, would have plummeted to their death. Sora, however, had simply spread his arms and started flying, bringing the girls along for the ride.

Well, as he had explained over the roaring wind, they weren't really flying; they were gliding, at an angle almost parallel to the ground, with just the slightest decline. Still, they were clearing ground a lot faster than if they had walked it, especially considering the long drop from the stone table top to the desert below. However, they weren't moving fast enough. Sora has simply told them to hold on, as if there was another choice, before streamlining his body, arm at his sides, and their speed more than doubled, especially when the girls copied him as best they could.

Despite everything that had happened so far, Kairi was still a little surprised that they had managed to slow down enough to land without injuring themselves, but all it took was Sora spreading his arms again and they slowed down enough for him to guide them to a gentle stop, directly in the centre of the crossroad of Keyblades. As soon as they touched land, Sora cried out, "Hades! Show yourself you son of a-"

"Hey hey, language, hero." The voice preceded the burst of blue flame that heralded Hades' reveal, arms crossed over his chest, and a smirk on his face. "There's no need to be rude now is there? It's just a game."

"And the armada stationed out there to kill me? Was that just a game too?"

Hades' smirk widened. "Well, I didn't say I wasn't playing for keeps." Unfolding his arms, the dark god continued, "I gotta admit, I hoped you wouldn't get here in time. You were _this_ close to running out of time, and hey, if I wasn't such a sporting fellow, I would've been off destroying another world right now; after all, you had less than sixty seconds remaining when you landed. But here we are. You've been quite a problem in the past, haven't you Keybrat? You did do me a big favour though when you unlocked the Underdrome, and another when you gave me this-" there was another flare of blue flame before Hades was holding the Keyblade of Tortured Souls "-magnificent prize, so, I'm a little torn on how I feel about you."

"Let me make things simpler for you," Sora replied, summoning Oblivion and Twilight Thorn, "I'm going to send you back to Hell where you came from, and stop you hurting any more innocent people!"

"You see, that's what I figured you'd say," Hades replied smoothly, as if taking Sora's anger in stride, "Which is why, in the end, I decided that if I didn't deal with you quick enough, you'd grow too strong for me to stop you at all; you hero-types have that annoying tendency to grow stronger over time."

"So it's come to this has it?" Sora asked rhetorically, "You and me, mano-a-mano?"

Glancing at the girls behind the Keyblade-wielding teen, Hades remarked, "I wouldn't exactly call this a fair fight, what with your lady friends there."

Before either girl could respond, Sora retorted, "They can sit this fight out. It's between you and me Hades."

"Oh, I wouldn't want them to have come all this way for nothing," Hades commented, a taunting tone to his voice. "Besides, I wasn't much interested in a fair fight anyway." Saying that, the dark god snapped his fingers, and pools of darkness appeared under the mass of Keyblades all around them, revealing a type of Heartless Sora had never seen before.

At first glance, they looked like Neoshadows, except standing perfectly upright. Upon closer examination, however, Sora could see that their antenna were a lot shorter, ending after the initial spike and missing the long, thin zigzag tendrils. Additionally, their legs looked plated with some kind of obsidian armour, and their left arm was covered by similar plating, topped with a black and blue pauldron. More frightening, though, was that each Heartless was carrying the Keyblade they had spawned near, one apiece; and every Keyblade in sight was in use.

"Nice, aren't they?" Hades' disembodied voice declared, as he disappeared as suddenly as he'd arrived. "It's amazing how much darkness there is still left in this world after all this time. All I had to do was bring a few proto-Heartless here, and let things run their course." Reappearing atop a nearby mesa, he added, "Now, let's see how strong you truly are, Sora."

o-o-o

"Oh, Maleficent's done gonna be so mad at me." He'd screwed up the mission the witch had given him, but then, that had been the norm in the past few years hadn't it? "Where did it all go wrong?" Looking back on his life, Pete couldn't work out when, exactly, his life had degraded to the point it was at now; mere minutes away from having nothing. After all these years of working for Maleficent, and especially after having dealt with Sora's influence over the past year or so, Pete honestly couldn't say that he believed that Maleficent would ever attain Kingdom Hearts and rule all the worlds, but... Well, he had nowhere else to go, did he?

Striding through the pristine white halls of the Castle That Never Was, Pete was trying to think of the best excuse to give Maleficent this time, such that hopefully she wouldn't cast him out like Minnie had done some ten-odd years ago, when a pair of those creepy new Dark Knight Nobodies warped in before him, crossing their swords to block his way. "Hey! What's the big deal here?"

Striding into view from a nearby doorway, the ever-serene face of Seymour glanced at Pete with the disdain one might show an insect not even worth stepping on. "Ah, if it isn't Maleficent's lackey. I think you'll find the castle a much more hostile place for you now."

"Whaddya talkin' about?" Pete exclaimed, "What's goin' on here fruitcake? Where's Maleficent?"

"The dark witch has played her part. She has no more lines left, and so, she has left the stage." Seymour replied in his usual mysterious and ever-calm tone.

Pete's eyes widened in shock; he may not have been the sharpest knife in the draw, but even he could work out what Seymour was implying. "Y-You mean..."

Seymour laughed somewhat mockingly, though with a dash of actual humour. "Did you really think that Maleficent was the puppet master all this time?" Seymour couldn't keep the amused grin from his face, displaying possibly the most emotion he had since arriving at the castle. "She is but another puppet, and the Dark Master has seen fit to cut her strings." Turning serious once more, and again giving the look that told Pete he was beneath notice, he added, "You, on the other hand, are not even worth the trouble of removing. You couldn't threaten His plans even if you knew what they were." Dismissing him with an absent wave as he walked away again, Seymour called over his shoulder, "I'm giving you one hour. Don't be here after that, lest I find myself in a... less generous mood."

Pete knew a threat when he heard one, and following his usual protocol, beat a hasty retreat, running as fast as his stubby legs could take him, and not stopping until he reached the Dark City outside the castle; it was only after he was outside that he realised that there had been a bridge there for a moment, and now wasn't again. Bending over slightly as he tried to catch his breath, the anthropomorphic cat mused to himself, "Well whadda I do now?" Thinking hard, an admittedly odd event for him, he realised that there was only one thing he really wanted to do, something he'd always wished he could go back to. "I just wish I could sail my boat again..."

The last time he'd voiced that thought, a magical silver door to the past had appeared, giving him the chance, albeit briefly, to go back to that idyllic time; this time, however, he wasn't so lucky, Sora having sealed that door when Pete had left, tail between his legs once more. "Dere's no way I can go back dere, not after Minnie done banished me. But mebbe... mebbe dere's someones else who could use a captain."

Opening a Dark Corridor, he muttered aloud, "Well, no use stayin' here. Not gonna find anythin' sittin' around." Without looking back so much as once, Pete strode into the portal, glad to be leaving that world behind forever, but uncertain what his future may hold.

o-o-o

"This isn't going too well." While Sora couldn't exactly tell which of his ladies had made that combat over the din of battle, as he ducked under one enemy Keyblade, only to be forced to parry a second mere heartbeats later, Sora couldn't help agreeing with the sentiment; as far as the eye could see, there was a sea of black heads and beady yellow eyes, the air filled with the sound of clanking metal. The girls had been bantering and bickering amongst themselves ever since the fight had started, but Sora neither joined in nor stopped them.

He'd noticed that, among their in-fighting, the two girls were actually fighting a lot better, as if saying to the other 'yes, I can fight'. Additionally, in trying to show each other up, they were working together better than Sora could honestly say he fought alongside anyone bar maybe Riku; well, that was assuming they _were_ actually trying and it wasn't just for show, which was also likely. In fact, as they were now, as a team they would easily be a match for either Riku, or Sora himself, though in a teams match the boys would almost assuredly win. Still, that was a marked improvement over how they used to fight; which is to say, poorly.

'I guess that little side trip to the Pride Lands helped more than just me,' Sora mused, shaken from his thoughts as he raised Twilight Thorn to parry the Follow the Wind Keyblade of the attacking ShadowKey Heartless, moments before stabbing Oblivion between its beady yellow eyes. With a twist of the wrist, he wrenched the enemy's Keyblade away from it, launching it across the desert to stab through the chest of another approaching Heartless, and slicing the head off a third in the same motion.

Kairi and Namine both had all of Sora's memories of how to fight from his first adventure, assuming his next started with Castle Oblivion. However, knowing the motions in their mind did _not_ mean their bodies knew how to perform the manoeuvres; it would seem that having their bodies transmuted into four-legged felines and back had helped their bodies to adapt. Better still, they had started to build on what they knew, using the motions they could already (now) perform to define their own techniques.

Well, to be fair, _Kairi_ was defining new techniques. Namine was mimicking her.

"There'll be no end to this!" Kairi shouted over the sounds of combat, sweeping her Oathkeeper Keyblade one way to parry three ShadowKeys sequentially, while throwing a wave of fire the other way with her free hand, to prevent herself being surrounded. Kairi had definitely developed her own style, easily using magic alongside her Keyblade, and often, simultaneously.

"Aren't you just a ray of sunshine?" Namine called back sarcastically. Her arms were held out to either side, hands about stomach height, and in a unique adaptation of the Aero spell, combined with a short-range Strike Raid, her two Keyblades spun around her at high speed; Kingdom Key spinning clockwise above her hands, and Floral Fallal spinning the other way below. Utilizing speed bursts from Sonic Blade to dash through clumps of ShadowKeys without giving them much of a chance, Namine was using her talent for Limits to shred the Heartless army; it did burn through her mana frightfully fast though.

Gathering magical energy into her hands, Kairi struck one of the Heartless in the chest with a palm strike, sending the creature of darkness tumbling back amongst its' brethren, whereupon it exploded into a maelstrom of fire, ice, and lightning. "I'm not just being negative; I'm being realistic," Kairi shot back, "Whenever we kill one of these things, most of the time Hades just ensnares the freed heart, encases it with darkness, and sends it after us again. I can feel him doing it." Turning her attention from her sister briefly, the redhead shouted, "Sora! You've got to stop Hades; it's the only chance we have of winning."

"I can't!" Sora shouted back, gritting his teeth as he fended off over a dozen ShadowKey Heartless, attacking many with their own weapons, or those of their allies. "I can't get a clear opening; there's too many of these things! If I go after Hades, they'll swarm and kill you two."

"If you don't stop Hades we'll all die anyway!"

"Then so be it." Sora's face was grim, turning to face them. "I swore, to you, and to myself, that I would never abandon either of you, to the Heartless or anything else. If that means the three of us need to die together, then I guess we'll all get to see what passes for an afterlife." It touched the girls, deep inside, that he loved them so dearly that he would sacrifice himself, the worlds, and everything else, just to be with them; pragmatically, they both realised how stupid that was, but that didn't stop them from loving him all the more for it. Unfortunately, with Sora's attention on them, and theirs on him, none of them noticed the Keyblade-wielding Heartless moments from cleaving Sora's head off.

The loud clang of metal on metal drew Sora's attention behind him again, moments before a familiar voice remarked teasingly, "You always were a sap weren't you Sora?"

Sora smirked, replying over the girls' excited shouts, "You're late. Almost thought you were sitting this one out." The brunette teen re-joined the fight as if he'd never been distracted.

"What can I say, the commute was a nightmare," Riku replied, sounding slightly blasé. "Had to carpool with an old friend."

It was then that Sora noticed the 'old friend' in question, his three-foot high form appearing behind the disintegrating remains of a slain Heartless. "Mickey," he commented neutrally, "Fancy seeing you here. You here for me or Hades?"

"Hades, for now," Mickey answered calmly. "Sora, welp, I dunno yet where me and you stand, but Hades and his army gotta be stopped."

Sora nodded, stating simply, "We can kill each other when it's over." Turning his attention back to his friend, Sora's eyes nearly fell out of his head, as he noticed that the Keyblade Riku held was not Way to the Dawn. The thick blade of his new weapon was patterned after a palm tree, with a trio of progressively smaller palm fronds making up the teeth. About halfway down the blade, the palm tree pattern blended into a sand motif, which flared out at the top of the guard, before a water motif receded in, flaring out again once more at the bottom before meeting at the base of the handle, so that the sand and the water created a stylised star. The Keychain, Sora noticed, was the same design as Way to the Dawn, only with inverted colours: a blue border, filled with white, or maybe a sandy beige. Breathless, Sora started, "Riku, you... You're..."

"Still not quite there yet," Riku remarked with a smile. "The darkness is still my sword-" as if to prove his point, he lunged forward with his Keyblade, which was swallowed by darkness mid-swing, becoming Way to the Dawn before it struck the Heartless "-but now, the light is my shield." Continuing the motion, he swung his weapon up to parry an incoming Keyblade, and it was consumed by light, returning to the new design before metal rung against metal. "Way to the Dawn, and Heart of Destiny. Two sides of the same coin."

By design alone, Mickey instantly knew what Riku had done; the name just closed the deal. "You bonded yourself to Destiny Islands... Riku, the guardian is never meant to leave their world!"

"Destiny Islands understands; I wouldn't be here otherwise," Riku retorted, "In fact, the islands _insisted_ I leave, and bring back Sora, Kairi, and Namine safely. How do you think I reached Yen Sid's Tower so quickly?"

"Riku, I'm trusting you to protect the girls," Sora interjected suddenly, "I've been waiting for the opening to go after Hades, and you've given it to me." Riku nodded; another time, he would have insisted on accompanying Sora, but he knew that this was where he was truly needed. "Mickey, you can either help him, or help me; I don't care either way, so long as you understand that I will show no mercy on any who would try to take Kairi and Namine from me." Mickey nodded solemnly, Kingdom D held in his usual reverse grip. Without another word, mouse king and fallen master took off running for the overlooking mesa, ignoring the Heartless save those that directly tried to hinder them.

"HADES! I'm coming for you!"

o-o-o

"Well, isn't this an interesting turn of events." Despite everything, Hades wasn't really all that set back by the arrival of the mouse king and his former lackey; the primary advantages he had going into this encounter was, after all, foresight and planning. For example, despite what the princess thought, he personally didn't recapture all of those freed hearts; that was way too inefficient, for him to simply sit there rebuilding his army as it got destroyed. No, he had set up an autonomous spell construct to do that job for him. With a month's head start on the Keybrats, Hades had planned every outcome and scenario meticulously.

It was time to see if his plans would finally bear fruit.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the ignoble mouse king himself," Hades taunted, drumming his fingers idly upon the hilt of his Keyblade, which was point-first into the stone below them, "Cast out any more friends recently? You're up to what now? At least three."

"I'm here to put a stop to your reign of terror." King Mickey Mouse stated firmly, with all the authority he could muster almost shimmering in the air around him.

Hades actually yawned, and even Sora winced slightly, as the dark god commented, "Boy, you really are a walking cliché aren't you, deck hand? You think you're the biggest and baddest fish in the tank, but you? You're just a carp, floundering around, and not a particularly grown one either. Him-" he pointed at Sora "-he's more like a box jellyfish: hard to find, looks deceivingly fragile and harmless, but can lay out a tonne of hurt to the unwary."

"And what would that make you Hades?" Sora sneered, "An eel? A shark?"

Hades just laughed. "No kid. Me, I'm the one who _shatters_ the whole damn tank and leaves the lot of you to die. I'm so far ahead of the both of you I've lapped you. Twice." Cracking his knuckles, he added, "I am going to destroy every piece of you so utterly, even the memory of you will be gone."

"You talk a big game, Hades," Sora replied with a half-shrug, "but to date, the only times you've ever been able to back up that mouth were with the Curse of the Underworld on your side. Well don't worry your pretty blue head; you'll be back there soon enough."

"How are you going to send him back there?" Mickey asked quietly, so Hades wouldn't overhear.

"Still working out the details," Sora replied, banishing his Keyblades as he closed his eyes and rested his right hand over his heart.

"What are you doing?" Mickey hissed.

"Fulfilling Aros and Roxas' last wish." Sparing the mouse king and the dark god no more thought, Sora cast his sight deep into his heart, calling forth the words he felt there. "Light, Darkness, and Nothingness; these are the base elements of all this. From they are all things born, and to they do all things yet return. Alone, each is weak, and defeatable, but their true power lies in their union. With unity is the strength to cleave heaven and earth. With balance is the fortitude to make the world anew. Within both, is-" Before Sora could finish the thought, he was engulfed entirely by a seemingly impenetrable barrier of darkness, but deep inside, all who witnessed could see a light that would never go out.

The barrier exploded outwards, washing over the other two would-be combatants harmlessly, before splashing against the pale pink barriers that sprung into life around the mesa. When the light returned, Sora stood there once more, changed though he was. Unlike his other forms, there was no single, predominant colour in this one. Purest white, deepest black, and richest silver layered his outfit, as wisps of energy, likewise tri-colours, swirled around his form. In his right hand he wielded the Keyblade he called Twilight Thorn (though Roxas'd had a different name for it), behind his left shoulder floated the familiar form of Oblivion. But behind his right shoulder, was a Keyblade known to no one. Until now.

The blade of it was a simple dual-edged sword, white, with a pearlescent sheen to it. As if in direct contrast to the rough, gothic look of Oblivion, the ivory teeth of this new weapon was laid out as if the strictest calligraphy. Two long teeth, with hollow boxes each, on the inside. A smaller tooth in the centre, parallel lines crossing parallel lines, almost touching the walls on either side. Somehow, though it was of a language he didn't truly understand, he knew it meant 'unseal'. Along the centre of the blade, if one looked at the right angle, were similar ancient cursive characters inscribed. The guard of the weapon was simple and straight forward: a traditional heart, with one side red, the other yellow. It was Creation, the true mirror of Oblivion, representing both Kairi and Namine as the black Keyblade did Riku. And the keychain, to Mickey's shock, was a symbol he recognized instantly, though there were few left alive who did. It was the symbol of the Chasers, the Guardians of the Light. The Keyblade Knights.

Prime Form Sora floated a good few inches above the mesa, flexing his neck to one side as he tightened his grip on Twilight Thorn, tri-colour energy beginning to gather in his cupped left hand. "Time to end this Hades."

o-o-o

Riku stabbed Shadow of Earth into the parched earth, spires of rock shooting out of the ground in all directions around him, pulverising the legion of Heartless that assailed him. He had jumped in to Sentinel Form shortly into the fight, knowing that, while he wasn't quite as agile in this form as he was normally, in a crush of bodies as thick as this, speed isn't always quite as important as raw strength, especially when protecting more than simply yourself. Behind him a decent ways was the mesa upon which Sora and Mickey battled Hades, and between the rock and himself, huddled the two girls he was tasked with protecting.

Kairi, whose Keyblade attacks were getting less and less effective as the ShadowKey Heartless were reborn again and again, and her own energy began to flag, had resorted instead to flinging spells around like it was going out of fashion, thankful that she had stocked up on Ethers while they were still in both Radiant Garden and Twilight Town (it was used more like an energy drink for worlds ignorant of magic). Namine, whose magic in her original form would never match Kairi, was instead using her limited grasp on magic, particularly the Aero spell, to give her Keyblades a reach they wouldn't otherwise have, and otherwise limiting herself to the ranged Limit techniques like Strike Raid and Ragnarok. While she had destroyed more ShadowKey Heartless than Kairi earlier, her current energy levels were exceedingly below her sister, almost to the point of taking her out of the fight entirely.

"I don't understand it," Kairi remarked, sending another wave of supercool air to drive the Heartless back. "Hades can't have enough concentration to still make these things _and_ fight Sora and Mickey at the same time, can he?"

Namine shook her head tiredly. "Not unless he grew an extra head or two."

"He must have something out there making them then." It was the only explanation that made sense. "Some 'Alpha' Heartless or something."

Namine nodded her agreement, before adding with building panic. "But with all of the darkness out there, it's impossible to find it. We need to thin the herd to destroy it, but we need to destroy it to thin the herd!"

"Calm down Namine!" Riku shouted, his heavy bronze Keyblade cleaving through the obsidian armour of a trio of ShadowKeys. "Sora trusts us to stop these things. You need to keep yourself together for him." Maybe it was an underhanded tactic, but it was the only way Riku could think of to keep the girls from falling into despair, the light in their hearts crushed by the overwhelming darkness surrounding them.

Other than the sounds of continued combat, there was silence for many moments, before Kairi remarked, "I have an idea."

"Why does that phrase always send a shiver of fear down my spine?"

"Oh shut up Riku!" Kairi snapped, before taking a deep breath. "Nam, you may want to step back, though do your best to cover me." With a nod, Namine took three steps back, directing her Keyblades into spinning vertically around the horizontal axis, and using them as directable walls on either side, should the Heartless try anything.

Closing her eyes, Kairi thought back to Radiant Garden, and the Holyja spell she cast with Aerith. She thought back further, to a set of memories thought lost forever, of the blue-haired warrior Aqua, and her grace in battle. As was her forte, Kairi brought the two memories together, Holy energy gathering in the tip of her Oathkeeper. Slowly, the Princess of Heart began to pirouette on the spot, Keyblade held horizontally and gaining momentum, before she suddenly dropped low to the ground, as beams of pure white light began firing out of her Keyblade.

The beams of light curved and wove through the air, and any Heartless that touched one was instantly vaporized, though the beam continued on. Faster the redheaded teen spun, rising from her crouch bent backwards slightly, for balance, as she held her Keyblade behind her, firing more and more of the deadly homing lasers. Finally, as the existing lasers began to cut a swathe through the assembled army, she raised one leg behind her head, her Keyblade held vertically, as she gathered mass amounts of Holy energy to her Keyblade, spinning blindingly fast as she awaited the signal.

"There!" Namine shouted, "I see it!" As if to punctuate her point, the blonde girl fired off a Ragnarok at it, the fiery homing lasers boring through a few weaker ShadowKeys on their way to the alpha, but it was enough for Kairi to track it by. Terminating her spin abruptly, she slashed forward with Oathkeeper, a massive beam of Holy light firing forwards towards the targeted ShadowKey, slicing through it and then weaving back for another go, and another, until the enchanted Heartless exploded balefully, and with the thunderous clatter of a thousand pieces of metal falling on stone, the ShadowKey horde followed it into destruction.

Catching her dizzy sister lest she fall, Namine waited a moment for Kairi to catch her breath before remarking, "Come on, we better go help Sora. You know how helpless he is without us."

o-o-o

"What? IMPOSSIBLE!" Hades' momentary distraction as Kairi eliminated his entire ShadowKey army in a single attack was more than enough for Sora to rush forward and strike him a half-dozen times, twice her weapon, as well as to unleash a barrage of pure pain in the form of a spell that had just enough Light, just enough Darkness, and just enough Nothingness to really hurt you no matter which of the three you allied yourself with.

Teleporting away before any more punishment arrived, Hades struggled to work out where his plans had gone so wrong. This new form of Sora's was one thing he hadn't expected, but really, it didn't provide him with many abilities he didn't already have, so how was he able to counter so many of Hades' counters? The other big problem was that, having never really seen King Mickey Mouse in combat, few people even knew what he was capable of, and Hades wasn't one of them; past tense, as now he knew enough to realise how tricky it was fighting him.

Every time he tried to use his Red Flame berserker invulnerability, the mouse just his him with a Dispel and dropped him back to normal again, which left him so stunned he was wide open for attack again. And it seemed Mickey Mouse had more counters than just that, so much so that while the mouse king had done very little in the way of damage against the dark god, he had shut down almost everything Hades had tried to do to fight back. And now, while he was distracted, that... that IMPUDENT girl destroyed his shadow spell construct AND his army!

"That's it!" Hades roared, black flames bursting into life around the Keyblade of Tortured Souls, before spreading over him as well. "I have HAD IT with you upstart mortals. No more games, NO MORE RULES! I am going to destroy this world, and everything on it, just to prove to you how pathetic you are when I survive!"

Sora wasted no time on words, gathering all the energy he could spare, before rocketing forward. Attacking faster than the eye could see, Sora rapidly struck four times each with all three Keyblades, fast enough that not a single heartbeat passed that Hades' form wasn't touching metal. A combined hit by all three sent him skyward, Sora shooting after him to strike him another dozen times, before spinning around rapidly in the air, all three Keyblades loosed. The wind picked up drastically, a tornado forming around Sora and Hades, as the three released Keyblades struck home again and again, before finally, snatching Creation out of the air, Sora struck Hades hard enough that the recoil didn't just send him into the barrier around the mesa, but crashing _through_ it.

The three teens below had barely started to wonder how, exactly, they were going to climb those cliffs when a blue bullet slammed into the desert behind them, sending loose Keyblades flying into the air, many of which had the misfortune of landing back on Hades' prone form. Climbing painfully to his feet, Hades turned back to them as Mickey landed on his feet after having leapt off the cliff, and Sora calmly floated down.

"You... You think you've won?" Hades asked, staggering slightly, "You haven't. I'm still going to destroy you all, with..." He trailed off, realising his hands were empty, before looking around quickly.

"You drop something Hades?" Sora taunted, holding the Keyblade of Tortured Souls in his left hand.

"Alright kid, so you beat me." Suddenly, Hades looked a lot less beaten up, and was in fact grinning in satisfaction. "But it doesn't really matter now, does it. You can't destroy it, not without releasing all the darkness it contains, and you can't send me back as long as it exists."

"You're quite right Hades, it's the ultimate Catch Twenty-Two," Sora observed, toying with the weapon. "If I destroy it, all of this maliciousness, this Deeper Darkness, will be released across the worlds. If I don't, then _you_ get to spread it instead. I admit that the only being I know of capable of unmaking the Deeper Darkness is, in fact, it's creator; you. Which is why _you_ are going to destroy it."

"Ha! Dream on Wonderkid," Hades barked. "Why in all the Realms would I want to do that?"

"You will do what you must do, just as I do," Sora replied cryptically. Knowing what he was planning, Kairi and Namine strode forward to each place a hand on his shoulder for support, both moral and otherwise. When Sora reversed his grip on the weapon, Mickey rushed forward to stop him, only for Riku to hold him back, the mauve-haired teen closing his eyes as his best friend plunged the cursed Keyblade into his own heart.

Darkness wracked his form, a maelstrom of shadow erupting from his body as if to consume all that lived. It was stopped in its tracked as matching waves of light burst into being around Kairi and Namine, containing the darkness, shaping it. Without their light, Sora's own would have been crushed, completely and permanently, but he fought on. The shadows stretched far and wide, and all those assembled were so horrified or shocked by what happened that no one noticed the small pools forming in the air behind Hades. Not until the trap was sprung.

Without warning, dark chains appeared out of nowhere, launching through the dark portals as if fired out of a cannon. Manacles of blackest steel affixed themselves around Hades' arms and legs, their chains rattling as Hades fought their control. Finally, a fifth shackle attached itself around his waist, and as one, the chains began drawing him back, the five portals all meshing into one.

"You have chosen Darkness as your mantle," Sora intoned, struggling with his new power as Kairi contained it and Namine made it his. "And so this self-same Darkness shall become your prison. The locks that bound you to the Underworld no longer can contain you, so your prison is made anew. Only you can end the threat of Deep Darkness to the worlds. And until you do so, it shall entomb you, banishing you back to your Underworld without hope of escape or redemption. As you have tormented the worlds with nightmares, you shall suffer your own nightmare for an eternity, only to suffer on until you truly repent."

With one final scream from the dark god, the massive portal closed, and the waves of darkness drew inside Sora, to be contained in his heart by the reinforced barriers of light Kairi and Namine shaped together as equal and opposite match to those of Aros and Roxas. Falling to his knees, Sora let out a relieved sigh, stating tiredly, "It's done."

"Done? You're joking right?" Mickey barked as he strode in front of the teens, though with his tone of voice it was really more a squeak. "You just willingly and unrepentantly became a creature of immense darkness - AGAIN! You expect to just walk away after this?"

"What would you have had me do Mickey?" Sora snarled. "I was faced with two impossible choices; let Hades walk free, or unleash his evil upon unsuspecting worlds. I chose the third option, and made myself his jailor." Forcing his tired body to his feet, he continued, "Darkness does not make me evil. In truth, it shows that I am afraid; afraid of losing everything I love, afraid of my own death. This darkness keeps me own light safe, locked deep inside where it can no longer be hurt. In time, I will lose this fear, and cast off this darkness, but for now, I do what I must."

Summoning Kingdom D with a resigned sigh, Mickey replied, "Then I do what I must as well."

Eyes widening slightly, Sora stated tersely, "Girls, run. Run and don't look back."

Frightened, not for herself but for him, Kairi asked, "Sora, what's wrong?"

As if in answer, with a flash of light, a fourth Keyblade appeared in Sora's right hand, a Kingdom Key, this one with no keychain attached. Ignoring Riku's cry of 'how many Keyblades do you have anyway?' Sora turned his head painfully so he could see them out of the corner of his eye, replying, "I'm not in control of my own body." The chain holding Roxas' charm to the Twilight Thorn disintegrated, the charm dropping to the ground as the Keyblade returned to its natural Kingdom Key state.

With forced movements, as if puppetted against his will, Sora crossed the two Keyblades before him, teeth facing out, such that their guards connected, and in a flash, the two weapons were joined into one. Mickey stared in abject horror as teal latticework sprung out from either side of the crossed blades, before a bronze blade began extending from between the top of the crossed shafts, extending slightly longer than the Kingdom Key itself before stopping. Finally, chains extended from the bases of both weapons, quickly meeting in the middle, before extending for a half-dozen more links, whereupon the charm formed: a heart, red outline on black background, over which rested two crossed Kingdom Keys.

"So, it's finally complete," A new, strange voice announced, distorted somehow, and yet, sounding similar to Sora's own. A Corridor of Darkness heralded the figure's arrival, and those assembled gasped in shock when they saw it was Roxas, but something deep inside Sora screamed that it was not. It recognized the black-with-red-highlights body suit 'Roxas' now wore; it recognized the mechanical looking red and black Keyblade, Void Gear, that 'Roxas' now carried; and more importantly, it recognized the voice.

"Vanitas!" The voice that issued from Sora's throat was not his own, sounding as much like Roxas as this 'Vanitas' sounded like Sora. "What... How are you here? How do you still exist?"

"He exists because I will it," another mysterious voice remarked, striding out of the same portal. Taller than everyone there, a standard issue Organization XIII black cloak concealing his form, until he reached back and pushed the hood off, revealing the short, spiky silver hair, cocky visage, and unforgiving amber eyes of their nightmare made flesh: Xehanort. "Hello Sora. I believe you have something that belongs to me."

-To be continued...-

* * *

Author's Notes

For those who are inevitably going to ask: yes, this is the final chapter of the initial arc of the story. Well, there's still an epilogue to come, but it won't really be necessarily be addressing anything that's happened right here. Yes, Hades' defeat was something of an anti-climax; that's usually how Hades gets beaten. Yes, the ending of this chapter _was_ deliberately designed to be as much of a cluster-f- uh, minefield, as possible.

Was the ending of this a little rushed? Possibly. I did want to get it finished before I started playing Birth By Sleep. However, it still comes in at the second largest chapter in this story, behind the actual chapter named Birth By Sleep.

The second half of this story was also un-beta'd, so... here's hoping I didn't make any massive errors I can't retcon later :D

The epilogue should hopefully by up in at most a week's time. I already have plans for at least the first... five or so chapters of the second arc of I don't know how many.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line, either through the email link on my profile page, or reviews. I'll endeavour to answer any questions in the notes after the epilogue.

Oh, and incidentally, as of the time I posted this, it's my birthday, so, happy birthday to me :D


	24. Which Parts Were The Dream?

- Shades of Grey -

Epilogue - Which Parts Were The Dream?

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story._

* * *

I've been having these weird thoughts lately, like is any of this for real or not?_

_Ahead lies something you hold dear — but to claim it, you must lose something first_

_A scattered dream that's like a far-off memory. A far-off memory that's like a scattered dream. I want to line the pieces up-yours and mine._

The memories fading from his mind again, he opened his eyes slowly; or, at least, he thought he did. Surrounded by darkness as he was, it was hard to tell whether his eyes were truly open or not. "Where... where am I?" Somehow, he suspected he had asked this question before, though he had no recollection as to when that may have been. "How long have I been here?" 'It would be so easy,' he mused to himself, 'to let everything go, to just fade away, and return to darkness. I'm so tired...'

He saw it then, the smallest point of darkness, the only feature in an otherwise featureless domain. Moving towards it felt like agony, each step painful as the darkness pressed down against him, but, after what felt like hours, he reached the light, stepping through without looking back.

'This... This feels familiar...' He thought to himself, 'I've been here before, sometime...' The sky above was dark, like night, with the tiniest pinpricks of light. The deep blue water ebbed and flowed away from the darkened sand, at the whims of the tide. Even the shadowed rocks looked familiar. The only feature, however, which jarred with how he remembered this place, was the blue-haired figure in the black bodysuit, blue half-skirt, and white sleeves, that sat on one of the rocks, overlooking the water; well, she had been watching the water, until the sound of footsteps in the sand behind her drew her attention.

Shuffling his feet nervously as she stared at him, a look on her face he couldn't describe, he started, "Um..."

He didn't get out another syllable before she leapt to her feet, rushing towards him and wrapping her arms around him with an excited cry of, "Ven! You're okay! When did you wake up?" Pulling back slightly to look him in the face, she added, "Wait, what are you doing here? How did you get here?"

"Um... I'm... I'm not Ven, miss." She pulled back further, excitement turning into shock as he watched, "My name's Roxas."

"Oh." There was an awkward pause. "OH!" The blue-haired girl jumped back, releasing him quickly like his touch had burned her. "I'm so sorry, it's just... you look so much like someone I know. I haven't seen him for some time, and... I miss him."

"It's okay," Roxas replied with a shake of his head, "It's obvious you care about him a lot."

"I do," the girl replied, nodding solemnly, "More than words can explain, but... I'm afraid... Afraid that he went to his... long sleep... hating me. Hating me for siding against Terra." The awkward silence returned, before she asked, "Do you know, you look so much like Ventus you could be his twin? I don't suppose you know why?"

Roxas shook his head. "No idea. All I know is I never looked much like my Somebody." At the confused look she cast his way, he explained, "I'm a Nobody; or, at least, I was, I think. Now, I guess I'm just... nothing..."

"Aww, cheer up, you're not nobody."

He shook his head again, "No, that's not what I mean. A Nobody is the type of being I am, or, was rather." She gave him a blank look. "Have you heard of the Heartless?" She nodded. "Well, a Heartless is formed when a person's heart is consumed by darkness. If that heart was strong enough, the body and soul it leaves behind can turn into a Nobody, and especially strong hearts can lead to Nobodies strong enough to retain their human form. A Somebody is who a Nobody used to be."

"I understand now," she replied, before suddenly remembering something, "Oh, my name's Aqua. So, who was your Somebody then?"

"Sora."

Aqua gasped in a combination of shock and horror. "Sora became a Heartless?"

"You know Sora?" Roxas asked, one eyebrow quirked, before adding to himself sourly, "Oh, right, _everybody_ knows Sora... Right, I remember now, Sora met you when he was really young. Yeah, Sora became a Heartless - again - but it didn't stick this time either."

"Wait, again?" Aqua was more confused now than before. "You mean he's turned into a Heartless before? And what do you mean 'didn't stick'?"

"I mean that he managed to turn back into a person after falling into darkness. Twice. Once this year, once last year. This time it was because of Hades, last time because he stabbed himself with someone else's Keyblade to awaken Kairi."

"Sora knows Kairi?" One confusion cleared up, just in time for the next one. "How? They're from completely different worlds." Before Roxas could answer her latest question, Aqua added, "Maybe you should just tell me everything."

Roxas sighed, settling himself down on the sand, away from the ebbing water. "Okay then." With a dry laugh, he remarked, "It's funny. Back when I was a Nobody - both times - I had no memories about my life as Sora. Now, forcibly separated from my body, when I'm little more than a memory myself, I have so many memories, none of which, I realise, are truly _mine_." Sighing again, he stated, "Here, in this dark place, it would just be so easy to fade away."

As Aqua watched, Roxas' form became see-through briefly, before firming up again. Settling down again on the rock she'd sat on before, though this time turned slightly to one side to keep an eye on Roxas, she suggested, "Well, maybe, if you share those memories with me, together, we can keep you from fading away."

"Will you stay with me, until the end?"

"Of course," she replied, adding sadly, "It's been so long, since I've had some company. The only other person I've seen, he left me with a single glimmer of hope. Hope that Sora could get me out of here. And then, he simply faded away. I don't know how long ago that was, but now, here you are. Maybe together, we can gather the hope to find our own way free."

"Okay then," Roxas began, turning to face her slightly, "It all started with a dream..."

-End-

* * *

Author's Notes

And there we have it. The epilogue was never intended to be particularly long, just enough to give a teaser of things to come.

This took me a lot longer to get started than I'd originally hoped. I blame the fact I didn't want to start writing it until I knew enough about Aqua's character, and her story is, canonically, the third you're supposed to play through in _Birth By Sleep_, so...

What I find most amusing, is how little this story represents what the original thought that sparked it. Way back when I had the idea that I wanted to write a Kingdom Hearts story in which Sora fell into darkness, one of the original premises was the idea that, when a person falls into darkness, their form was shaped by the one or two Deadly Sins (Wrath, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Lust, Envy, Gluttony) that most encompassed them.

Now, most people who fall into darkness would be represented by either Greed (wanting more power), Envy (wanting what someone else had), Pride (needing to be the best), or Wrath (anger and hatred). Riku's fall, for example, would have been due to Envy and Pride, i.e. coveting Kairi, and believing that he was the only one who could save her. With Sora, however, none of those four fit him. The most logical one for him would be, in fact, Sloth, the desire to do as little as possibly; after all, Kairi does refer to Sora as a 'lazy bum', and it doesn't sound like the first time she'd done so.

However, Sora's strongest emotion, as we know, is love, specifically for Kairi, but also a more general love for all things. When twisted to darkness, however, that love would turn into Lust. Sora, therefore, would have been using his heart's connection with all things, especially Kairi, along with his new darkness, to engage in acts of a more, shall we say, adult nature than this story did more than really hint at. For those who complained about the 'situations of an adult nature' actually occurring in this story, off screen though they tended to be, they were nothing if not tame than what would have occurred _on_ screen had my original idea gone to print.

Then, however, it occurred to me that, none of the people shown to fall into darkness really acted all that much different from how they had before. Clayton, Jafar, Hades, Oogie Boogie, Captain Hook, Ursula, Maleficent, Scar; they were all decidedly evil before adding in Darkness. And Riku, he didn't act all that much different than he did before either, once you factor in how Maleficent poisoned him against Sora, and fed him lies about how he could rescue Kairi. So why then should Sora's personality drastically change?

From there came the idea of this story being an expression of 'darkness does not equal evil, light does not equal good'. And, as it turns out, I'm much more satisfied with how this story turned out than I believe I would have been with the other.

That's not to say I won't go back and revisit my old idea at some point, but then, we never know what the future may bring.

In the mean time, stay tuned for the second season, Shades of Grey: Dance of Light and Shadow (working title). Coming soon to an Internet near you!

EDIT (01/01/2011): I thought I would update this to let everyone who has story alerts know the start of second season has been posted.


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